Day To Day
by TheModerator
Summary: Latias is reunited with Latios, and plan on spending as much time with each other as possible as mates. Good and fun times aplenty, as Lorenzo's new career as a TV broadcaster gets off to a flying start. As for Katie, Amy, Absol (Pups?), Bianca and the new guy? Well, who knows? "Heartwarming, tragic, funny, genius, overall a great read" "So moving I suffered from motion sickness!"
1. Chapter 1

Bianca stepped into the bathroom and carefully closed the door, making sure it was closed before carrying on. She didn't want Latios flying in while she was having a shower. It wasn't so much that she didn't like him being in the same room when she was showering, it was just that wings that big, he'd end up getting water everywhere just by flying in. She'd also locked it because she didn't want the new guy getting in. It was quite odd to have him around, but then again, she'd always been an only child and it was bound to be a culture shock when another boy started living with them. Though 'boy' hardly seemed like the right word.

It was warmer in here than the rest of the house because of the pipes under the floor, but it still was cold, so Bianca decided to switch on the shower before she got undressed. That way the room would heat up and it wouldn't be that cold whilst naked.

The shower curtain was pulled accross, so all she had to do was reach inside and press the button on the wall, which she did with little thourght for the action.

From behind the shower curtain came a screeching noise, which made Bianca jump back a few paces until she identified it.

Latias had, until that moment, been happily napping in the bathtub, until she was awoken by the shower spraying cold water at her.

"WHAT THE ARCHEUS? WHAT? WHAT?"

Bianca watched as the curtain started to shake around as Latias flew into it multiple times, tangling and untangling herself. Eventually though, the dragon flew around the corner, out of the bath and - more importantly - out of the water stream, almost knocking Bianca over in the process. She steadied herself on the sink basin and looked with mock disapproval at Latias. She herself was half smiling, amused at the method by which she was woken. Bianca was the first to speak.

"Why were you sleeping in the bath tub?". She knew the answer, but she asked just to show interest.

Latias responded psychicly and outloud. So it looked like Bianca understood her language, even though it was impossible. It also meant that Bianca knew what tone of voice she'd said it in.

"It's too cold to sleep outside. Nearly snow!"

Bianca nodded. Latias didn't like snow. Neither of the pair did, though Bianca had never actually asked why. She didn't ask now either.

"Couldn't you sleep in your room with Latios?". Ever since they had become 'mates', the two were practically inseparable. More than they were before.

Latias replied with a slightly disappointed voice.

"He's gone hunting, but he said its too cold for me to go with him. He says most pray will be hiding."

"So you slept in the bath?"

"It's got Latios' scent everywhere since you gave him that wash. I still think I should have cleaned him."

Bianca didn't enjoy that part. Washing anything that was classed as a 'dragon' when it didn't want to be washed was already dangerous. When it had open wounds that caused pain whenever soap went in them was just plain suicidal. But thanks to some feminine compassion and numerous food related treats, she'd managed to bring him back to good health.

Although...

"You're taking more naps since you got back . It's like you're getting more tired than normal. Are you okay?"

Latias considered it. Now Latios was back and they'd decided to be mates, she felt better than ever, emotionally speaking. They weren't 'Actually' mates, no, Latios was still in the courting phrase where he gave her gifts every few minutes. But Latias was eagerly anticipating the time when... Well that was beside the point. All the same, she'd often find herself daydreaming about how it would be like to... And there she was, distracted again. She couldn't help it. But she tried, and answered Bianca.

"I'm happy! But tired. Lots.". She dropped her face to make her look sad.

Bianca tilted her head and started to think outloud.

"Well, you did spend ages in a different region. I wonder if... Wait a minute? Aren't you and Latios mates now?" She sounded noticeably excited at the end of that sentence, and Latias wondered why. What did their relationship matter to Bianca?

"Well.. Yes... But we've not actually mated yet. Latios is still giving me loads of presents" Bianca nodded in understanding, and stopped looking excited.

"It's not that then. Ah well... Can I just feel your stomach?".

Latias thourght it was an odd request, but Bianca was smart enough to know what she was doing, so she nodded and floated slightly more vertical than usual. Bianca walked up to her and started rubbing her underside, at the bulge below the blue triangle.

"Hmmm... What did you eat today?".

"All of the breakfast you made, that bag of treats, a zigzagoon, two magikarp, a goldeen, the left overs from lunch, another zigzagoon, lots of berries... An entire bush of berries actually... Three apples and left overs from dinner"

Bianca frowned and tapped her foot.

"Three apples? I'm suprised you can find them this close to winter. But I don't think that was everything now, was it..."

Latias knew when she was busted.

"And the rest of the fish you left on the side. Sorry". Bianca just made a dissaproving 'Hmmmm' noise.

"Well... We were going to give you that tomorrow but never mind. Are you still in season?"

"Yep". Bianca guessed as much from her behaviour.

"That's still a lot of food, Latias. And you haven't put any of it on. You know what that means?"

Latias thourght for a second, then realised what Bianca meant. Her face visibly frowned when she realised. Bianca confirmed her fears.

"Yep, you've got worms. I'll get some medicine from the - "

Latias squealed and turned and made for the door, also knocking a selection of shampoos from the shelf above the sink with her flippers.

"NO! NO MEDICINE!".

She tried flying out of the room, but in her rush she'd forgotten to open the door, and flew straight into it with a 'thud'.

"MY SNOUT! AHHHHHHHHH!". Bianca just chuckled at Latias' misery.

"Don't worry, you're not having it yet. I've still got to buy it. But you will have to at some point. Worms are nasty. I'd imagine you got them from some foreign meat"

As correct as Bianca was, Latias wasn't in a position to agree, and managed to grab the door handle in her mouth before turning it and fleeing out of the room and down the stairs. Bianca sighed and closed the door again. The shower had been running the entire time, so at least the room was warm enough to get undressed now.

Latios was flying above the island, disappointed. He'd set out to find some pray, but had so far been less than impressed by the lack of anything. As if to make matters worse, he could sense a cold front. It would snow in a few days, then finding pray would be completely impossible. The only thing that would be out would be ice types, which he had always hated. And at any rate, Latias deserved more than a stupid glaceon.

He spoke to himself as he did his third circle around the town, his lowest yet.

"If only I could find another scyther. That'd be good. Although they could do with a bit more meat. Yeah. Something less insecty."

Latios was hungry. He'd caught a lot during the day, but he'd given most of it to Latias, and he suspected he'd also got some kind of cold or flu. No doubts Bianca would feed him some medicine that tastes horrible as well, to fight it. Well he wasn't going to have it this time. He had a partner, and a much better body than the humans. He didn't need medicine to get better. Latias would fix whatever was wrong with him. He hunted meat, Latias found berries and looked after the two of them. That was how it worked.

Speaking of her, Latias was eating more too. She'd probably got the flu as well. And if Bianca tried to give her any stupid artifical medicine, well... She would have to go through her mate first.

Not for the first time, Latios felt proud. He'd kept the present he'd caught her for over two weeks, and never doubted her return. He'd battled to find her, and when that failed, waited every second for her return. And when she did, he'd not waited a single second to give her the present and ask to be her mate. And she'd said yes.

He was one lucky dragon.

And yet, he still couldn't find any more food. The canals were almost frozen, the water detectably thicker as it neared freezing point. There were no fish in them. Not even a magikarp. The sea was cold too. Not freezing, not by a long way - it was too big and too active to freeze. But all the small fish had migrated to warmer waters. The only ones that stayed were large ones like sharpedo and wailmer.

While Latios would have loved to catch a wailmer, it wasn't the most practical of pokemon to carry back, or eat. Wailmer and wailord were mostly all fat - he'd learnt that from experience - and they'd start oozing the gooey white blubber the moment you bit them. Flying with something that stored a seemingly infinite amount of blubber that would leak out of it, without anything on the ground noticing was impossible. Even at night, because humans would wake up the next morning and try following the fat trail. Too many times they'd gotten close to the secret garden.

That said, you didn't have that problem with sharpedo. They just were annoying to catch. You spent ages waiting for one, and then a whole pack would swim past at once. Generally, the rest would scatter when you attacked the first one, but he'd sustained more than one bite to the wing from trusting that they'd run away, only to find they wouldn't.

But Latias deserved at least something, and a sharpedo would fit the bill nicely. Even if their skin was a bit rough and difficult to chew through.

He turned around to face his favourite sea hunting ground, and set off to get the couples supper.

Lorenzo fed Cubone another poke block and watched his response.

Cubone himself was sat on the kitchen counter, bone idily resting in one hand and legs dangling over the counter edge. Lorenzo was in the process of identifying what kind of food he liked, a task that sounded simple, but wasn't.

The fact was, Cubone liked pretty much everything about as much as everything else. There was no food that he particularly loved or hated, and the guide Lorenzo had inherited from his mother was next to useless. That wasn't to say he wasn't checking it every five minutes for further inspiration.

He looked at the yellowed and worn pages again, glaring at the page with a hand-drawn picture of a Cubone through a pair of workmen's glasses.

He read an extract outloud to Cubone.

"Look here. It says" - he adjusted his glasses slightly and altered his voice to the quote - "' Cubone specifically enjoy scraps of any nature, mixed with fresh, untreated, wild berries'. That doesn't sound right, does it? Surely you've got to like something more than just scraps. This is why I didn't listen to my mother very often. Because she was as crazy. The same thing written on every page, just in different words."

He grinned at Cubone, who smiled and nodded back.

"She insisted on feeding everything leftovers, which isn't a very nice thing to -"

He was interrupted by the phone ringing.

"Sorry Cubone. I'll just take this... "

The phone had a handset in the kitchen, so Lorenzo lent over and picked it up, frowning at the screen.

"I don't recognise that number. Anyway..."

The phone made a beeping as he pressed a button and raised it to his ear.

On the other end of the phone, Bianca's friend, Katie, was ecstatic. The moment he answered, she squealed down the phone.

Cubone heard it from a meter away. Lorenzo practically threw the phone accross the room. But eventually the squealing stopped and he put the phone back to his ear.

"Who is this?"

Katie realised that it wasn't Bianca who'd picked up.

"Oh hi Mr Lorenzo! It's Katie! Is Bianca there?"

"She's in the shower right now. I could take a message?"

"Oh, okay then. Yeah. Err... Yeah"

There was a silence, and Lorenzo wondered if the call had gone dead.

"Katie? What's the message?"

"Oh, yeah. Absol's just given birth to her litter! 7 pups!"

"Oh right, that's wonderful! Seven? Wow! That was quick!"

"Yeah. They put her in an special machine at the pokemon centre. They normally have the litter after about a month, but the machine sped it up. Something about Absol being in pain"

"Oh, it's good that that's over then. How is she?"

"Tired. And she's not letting to pups inside the house, but Nurse Joy says that's normal. She's huddled with them at the bottom of the garden now."

"I take it you mean Absol, not Nurse Joy?" Lorenzo replied with a cheeky grin. "Yeah, Absol. Anyway, I was just calling to say, if Bianca wanted to come round tomorrow and see them, she could."

"I'm sure she'd love that. I'll tell her when she gets out of the shower"

"Thanks Mr Lorenzo. Oh, and I'm sure Absol would like it if the twins came along too."

"I don't think she'd be able to stop them."

"Yeah. Anyway, I've got to go now, I'm gonna need to buy some more food for theise extra mouths. See you tomorrow!"

"You too!"

Lorenzo heard a click on the other end of the phone as Katie hung up. As he put the phone back, he started talking to Cubone again, considerably cheered up.

"Well isn't that nice? Absol's had pups. I should make her something useful. What do you think?"

Cubone had often found himself subject to Lorenzo's half-rhetorical questions, and thourght on how to answer this one.

Well, Absol was looking after pups. She was the female and the male was irrelevant. Cubone was pretty sure that in the wild the male Absol normally stayed with the female, so of the services of his that she'd be missing the most, providing protection and fresh meat would be the top two.

Lorenzo couldn't make a fresh meat finding thing, but he could kind-of make a shelter for them. What Absol would want, especially with all the water around Alto Mare - Cubone couldn't remeber if Absol pups could habitually swim - would be some way of taking them around, keeping them near her and therefore safe, but at the same time as minimalistic as possible. She would want it to be as close to the wild as possible.

Cubone knew from personal experience with his last owner that a lead/harness was not the way to go. You couldn't put them on yourself, you couldn't take them off, they were uncomfortable and embarrassing.

Although along the harness theme... What if Absol had a saddle? A piece of material that spanned accross her back, with pouches either side that could be buttoned over with tiny straps, big enough for the pups to stick their heads out, but small enough to stop the rest of their body getting through. He guessed the pups would be around the size of a stuffed toy. Put pouches on either side of Absol, she could herd her pups into the sides and wear it herself. Then be able to take her pups with her, show them the world without worrying that they'd run off. Which Cubone imagined would be her worst nightmare.

This was an incredibly complex thourght to explain to Lorenzo when they didn't speak the same language, but Cubone was going to try anyway.

Lorenzo lifted an eyebrow as Cubone began to explain, gesturing with his hand and the bone to emphasise details.

First, he went on all fours like, Absol walked. Next, he pointed to his midriff, before standing up on the counter top again. Finally, he imitated putting his paws in a pocket on his front, like how a gengeskarn had its young.

Lorenzo make a 'Hmmm' Noise.

"So, a jacket? I don't think she'd like that, aren't they meant to like the cold. A jacket wouldn't make much sense..."

Just as Cubone shook his head, Latias flew into the room, looking around and focusing on Cubone when she saw him. She flew upto him and gave him a brief lick on the shoulder, which made Cubone make the closest thing to a giggling noise that he could.

"Hang on, your arm's a bit dirty... Wait... There... Hi Cubone!"

Lorenzo was temporary forgotten as the pokemon got absorbed in their own conversation.

"Hi Latias!"

"Who was on the phone?"

"Oh, Katie. Absol had her pups. 7 of them."

"Oh cool! I want pups!"

"Well you know who to ask for that. Not my job"

Latias gave him a look that said 'you're too young to think like that', even though there was no such thing in the wild. But she spoke with the same voice as before.

"Hmmm.. 7 pups. That's a bit awkward."

"Why?"

Latias showcased her ability to always think of the bizzare but relevant point.

"Well, she's only got 6 nipples. How's she going to give milk to 7 pups?"

Cubone had honestly not considered that, and had to pause for a moment.

"Good point. But it's not like you can help her on that"

"No... We could help her get food though, since she won't have a mate?"

"Maybe... Why aren't you with your mate anyway?"

"Latios has gone hunting, and he says it's too cold for me to go. It IS too cold. I don't know how he does it. He must be so strong and fluffy and..."

"Latias. Still here. Quit daydreaming"

"Sorry. What were you doing just now then?"

"Oh, Lorenzo wants to make a gift for Absol. I've got an idea, but I can't speak english. Could you translate?"

"Okay then, sure! What's the idea?"

Cubone looked at Lorenzo before explaining again, with the same motions as last time.

"It's a saddle that she can wear, with pouches either end for the pups to go in. It's got tiny straps over the pouches that are just are apart enough that they can stick their heads out of, but that they can't actually escape from. Then she can take the pups with her and show them how to do things, and keep them safe. It's a good idea right?"

Latias thourght it over again and nodded.

"Oh yeah. And make it with big toggle things that she can move with her own teeth. That way she can get the pups in and out without Katie's help. It'll be like a natural mothers pouch."

"Exactly!"

Latias turned to Lorenzo and started to explain the idea to him, both outloud and psychicly.

"That actually sounds like a good idea... Very good..."

Latias and Cubone both smiled.

"I'd need to know her measurements, but I can get working on the main bit now I guess, and get the measurements tomorrow. I'm glad we had an early dinner now."

Latias moved out of the way to let Lorenzo get to the back door. He pulled on a hat and set of fingerless gloves, before opening the door and looking back into the room. Latias immidiatly moved away from the cold.

"Chilly night tonight... You coming Cubone? I'm going to the workshop to make the main bit. It was your idea after all, you could help with the materials?"

Latias liked the sound of feeling all the materials, but it was cold outside and there wasn't much else she could do after she'd chosen the materials other than lie on the floor of the workshop - or in a boat if Lorenzo had just finished a build - and freeze. Cubone, on the other hand, didn't care about the temperature. Latias secretly envied his fur, it must keep him very warm.

"Sure. I'll help!". Cubone hopped down from the counter, waddled underneath Latias and out of the door. Lorenzo followed him and shut the door behind, leaving Latias alone in the kitchen.

Latias was still hungry, and although Latios was coming back from hunting soon - and it was very rare he came back empty handed - she was hungry now.

Lorenzo had left out the various things he'd been feeding Cubone, including a tub half-full with various poke blocks. The lid was off and it was on the side, so Lorenzo clearly expected her to eat it, otherwise he would have put it away and out of her reach. So there was nothing wrong with eating them.

With a smile, she flew over to the open box and started munching on the blocks. Instead of the normal dragon mix she was fed, this one was a collection of every single block type. Some didn't taste particularly nice - like the green grass type blocks, which were too sour in her opinion. Others tasked okay - like the purple psychic ones. None were as good as real meat or berries.

While she was eating, the tub was moving accross the counter, pushed by her snout. To combat this, she tried moving it in a circle. This plan failed dramatically as the tub tipped itself off the side and fell onto the floor with a clattering noise.

"Ahhhh!"

Latias dove behind the table before any humans could walk in. Yeah, the tub was out so she should have been allowed to eat it, but it hadn't stopped her from getting a slap accross the snout before.

But Bianca was in the shower, and the new guy was two floors up. Probably didn't hear anything.

Latias popped her head above the table, but no one was coming. So she could continue to eat the rest of the pokeblock off the floor.

She flew back around the table and went straight for the upturned tub, pushing it accross the floor with her snout. The tub remained the wrong way up, with the majority of the pokeblocks still inside.

"Stupid... Box... Go up! Turn! Grrrrr"

Eventually, she managed to manuver the box in such a way that it was against a slight dent in the floor. One final push and the box righted itself, spilling its contents on the floor, which Latias happily lapped up.

"Latias! Latias! Look at this!"

From outside, Latias heard her mate shouting. Which meant that he'd caught something to bring to her. It certainly sounded like it, his speach was all muffled, the kill blocking his mouth.

Latias flew up and span around on the spot three times, unsure what to do. She certainly smelled nice enough, on account of her still being in season. And thanks to the suprise soaking from the shower her coat was shiny enough. But... But.. She wanted something to give Latios. Like berries. Or some other kind of nice vegetation. Something shiny?

She spied the answer in a vase above the sink. In it were a collection of roses. And according to so many 'classic films' - that Lorenzo liked watching with them - males totally loved females with roses. Pretty sure.

Latias flew over and took the rose in her mouth. It wasn't de-thorned, but Latias' thick skin and tounge protected her from any spines.

Taking care to make sure the rose was clear of the vase before flying away, she headed to the door, Latios still yowling.

"Latias! I've got supper! Look at this!"

She tried opening the door by putting her head between the door and the frame, but Lorenzo had shut it tight and that wasn't going to work this time. With a miniature sigh, she flew up, depressed the handle with the tip of her snout, and carefully tugged the door open.

There was a blast of cold air when the door opened, but Latias delt with it on account of the fact that Latios had brought one of the biggest fishes she'd ever seen. Not 'the' biggest, but one of them. Top twenty.

"It's a sharpedo! Look! The skin's rough, but the insides smell good!"

Latias hovered in the doorway, unsure what to do. Go outside and eat, but be cold, or ask Latios to bring it inside?

Latias flew outside. If Latios took the kill inside, they'd both get punished.

"Wow, it's big!"

"Uhhu! It tried putting up a fight, but I got it!"

Latias looked admirably at Latios. In turn, he did the dragon equivalent of awkwardly shuffling his feet on the ground, ruffling the feathers on his rear fins. This was the fifth or sixth thing he'd caught as her mate, and the procedure for giving it Latias always seemed awkward. She'd always give him that kind of look, and he'd never know what to do next.

Latios decided the best thing to do would be to just drop the catch and let Latias dig in.

With a mixture of a 'thunk' and a 'spalt', Latios released his grip on the shark and it hit the patio a foot below.

Latias noted the injuries the creature had inflicted. Besides the four symmetrical punctures where he'd carried it, there was also a large chunk missing near the back fin, and a fairly long cut along the opposite side.

Latias imagined what her mate must have done to get the kill. He must have spied a pack of sharpedo, an entire shoal, and dived right into them, just to get this treat for her. Perhaps it tried swimming around and tried to bite him, but he got the lethal bite first. Except it'd still be moving, so a swipe accross the side to shock it. Fight off a few more of its friends. Then grab the injured one, fly it out of the water, then shake it around until it stopped struggling.

Latias realised just how lucky she was to have such a powerful mate, who could get her nice treats like this with little effort. He must be great to mate with...

"Is it okay? I mean, I had to take a bite out of its side because it just wouldn't give up, but I mean - "

"It's great! Really. Thanks!" Latias interrupted, humoured by Latios' stuttering. How could it be anything less then great? Food was food, and she was starving.

"Hmmm.. Next time I really think I sho-"

Latias silenced him by flying so her head was right next to his, and rubbing her snout against his, cooing softly as she did.

"Oh, right. Okay then... Err... Err.. Latias..? You've got a flower in your mouth? You know that right? Or... Or don't listen... That's cool too... I guess."

Latios stuttered, which made Latias giggle. She moved the flower from her mouth and nestled it behind Latios' left ear, flower facing forwards, then let go of it. After a few more seconds of rubbing his snout, she flew away, giving him a parting lick on the side of his snout where she spotted a bit of mud or blood or something.

"You look cute with that flower! Thanks Latios! Let's eat!"

* * *

Well, what do you think? Did I nail it or fail it? Let me know in your review! Which you're going to write now. Yep, even if you don't have a FanFiction account. No really, you don't need one. No more excuses, write that review! WORK THOSE FINGERS, KEYBOARD WARRIER!

Also, did I mention that this is a teaser? Yep, I had to take a bit of an ACTION break, and by that I mean a break to write ACTION (ACTION in capital letters because it's BIG ACTION) , which you can read in my story 'home', out on my profile now! If you'd rather stick with this, click the follow button and you'll get a notification when I start uploading it in about a month's time!


	2. Chapter 2

Bianca reached forward, and pressed the button to switch the shower off. Instantly, the water stopped raining on her, reduced to a small dribble that quickly stopped. She pulled the curtain back and stepped out of the shower, facepalming when she reached for a towel, realising the dilemma she had inadvertently got herself into.

With all the fuss with Latias, she'd forgotten to grab a towel from the cupboard in her room. And Lorenzo had taken the one from the bathroom out, probably to be washed, so there wasn't a spare. Which meant she was stuck, unable to get dry, and unable to fetch a towel to dry herself off with, unless she planned on making the risky naked run to her room, or shout for someone to get her one.

"GRAMPS!"

Silence.

"LORENZO! CAN YOU GET ME A TOWEL?"

Lorenzo was old and a bit deaf. Latias, on the other hand...

"LATIAS?!"

She had to have heard that. But there was no response. Bianca shouted one last time and waited thirty seconds..

"ANYBODY GETTING ME A TOWEL?!" No Avail.

Really though, if no-one was close enough to hear her shouting, the odds of anyone seeing her in the four meter sprint were small. Besides, she didn't hear anyone outside the door. It was probably safe.

Bianca padded barefoot to the door and unlocked it, before pausing for a second, then opening the door and belting for her room, arms covering her privates should anyone else be on the landing.

Up until that moment, Mac had been looking for a towel. He'd heard Bianca shouting, and he'd shouted back to ask where they were, but she hadn't answered. So he was left wandering around the house, looking for where the towels were. That was, until Bianca slammed the bathroom door that he was stood behind, right into his face, having seemingly exploded out of the bathroom.

"Ahhhh!"

"DON'T LOOK AT ME!" Bianca yelled back, getting to her bedroom and slamming the door behind her.

Mac hadn't been looking anyway, too busy grabbing his stinging nose. It didn't appear to be bleeding, but it still hurt a hell of a lot. He shut the bathroom door and considered asking Bianca if she needed help, but odds are she'd now gotten a towel from wherever they were, or she'd still be shouting. Instead, he looked around the landing, eyes fixating on one room. Judging by the color coming out of it, the room was very bright blue, in contrast to the rest of the house which had a rather dull colour scheme.

He opened the door to the unexplored room and stepped in.

Instantly, he tripped over a beanie bag. The fall would have been painful, but for the fact that - aside from the area where the door opened - there didn't seem to be a square centimeter of the floor that WASN'T covered in beanbags. Weirdly surreal.

After he'd removed his face from the bag, he noticed the second odd thing about the room, the particularly funky wallpaper. It was blue, with rounded red triangles at varying angles. It looked like the triangle on Latias' chest, but with blue instead of red and red instead of blue. So, in other words, it was the triangle on Latios' chest.

The walls also had quite a lot of shelves attached to them, and on the shelves were all kinds of things. They were painted either red or blue, and the majority were red. Oddly, while the blue shelves only had stuffed dolls, the red ones held anything from a sweet wrapper, to rocks, to bouncy balls and even a gold-colored bracelet.

Mac wasn't quite sure why the room existed, but if he had to guess it's exact function, he'd say it was a room for Latias and Latios to sleep in. He didn't know why, but it just seemed like it would be. Still, it was interesting. He went over to a shelf and looked at the dolls.

There were all sorts of them, all different and none of them were human, or indeed any type of recognisable animal. Were they Pokemon? A few looked similar - a fox but with a fluffier tail, a black cat with a weird pattern on it, a weasel All of them had tiny little holes in the fabric. Punctures. Although they appeared random, Mac noticed an insignificant detail. The majority of the dolls had the majority of their punctures around the neck area.

Curious, Mac reached to pick up one that looked like a wolf.

"They don't like it if you touch their toys." A voice behind him suddenly said.

Mac turned and realised it was Bianca, stood in the doorway. Thankfully she was clothed, though Mac couldn't tell exactly how as most of her was covered with a long pink towelling robe that went down to just below her knees.

Mac hadn't actually gotten to touching the doll, and withdrew his hand as he turned to face Bianca full on.

"Oh. I take it 'they' is the two dragons?"

Bianca walked in nodding, also navigating the floor so she didn't trip on a beanbag like Mac had.

"Uh huh. If Latios finds your scent on them and you haven't been playing with them with him, he'll shun you for a few days."

"Well, we wouldn't want that, would we? Actually, I wouldn't. So...if the stuff on the blue shelf is Latios', thhheeeeen... is the stuff on the red shelves Latias'?"

"Yup."

Mac nodded. "I see."

Now she was closer, Mac could smell the scent of the shampoo she'd used. And was it him, or was she leaning towards him slightly? The thought didn't occupy him for too long, and he'd asked Bianca for clarification on a much simpler matter.

"Oh, right. Is this where Latios and Latias sleep then?"

A look of annoyance flashed across Bianca's face, but Mac was oblivious and waited for her response.

"Oh. Er...no. It's not their bedroom. They didn't sleep here last night, did they?" Bianca let a bit of annoyance creep into her tone as well.

"I wouldn't know. I was knocked out and tied to a boat, if you remember."

Bianca giggled at this. It was quite funny. They had tied him to a boat after all.

"Yeah. Funny for some. My back kills."

Bianca sensed an opportunity to get to know Mac a bit more. He was here, she might as well socialize. Who knew, he sounded an interesting enough person.

"Do you want a massage?"

"Do you know a chiropractor?"

Internally, Bianca facepalmed. He had to be kidding. No one was actually that clueless. She stayed silent and the moment quickly turned awkward.

"So what is this room then?"

Bianca looked around a bit before answering.

"It's just where the twins go if they want to fetch something to play with. Or have a short nap. Only a short one though, they always sleep outside during the night, unless it's really, really cold."

"Oh. Why does Latias have so many bits of rubbish on her shelf?"

Bianca shook her head the moment he said the word rubbish.

"Don't ever say that they're rubbish to her. She loves all these things, if you did she'd be really offended!"

"Bit sensitive isn't she?"

Bianca ignored his remark and carried on explaining.

"Latias is the female, so naturally she's the one who'll go out and try and find nice, pretty things. I'd imagine to decorate a nest or something."

"But that's just a sweet wrapper. There aren't even any sweets in it!"

"No, but look at it from her point of view. Look at the inside, it's all shiny with colors and everything. It'll probably still have the scent from whatever sugary thing was in it. Plus she likes noisy things, and that'll make an interesting scrunching noise when she bit it. If she was to build a nest out of it, Latios would be pleased with it."

"And that's another thing! Why do they pick stuff up with their mouths all the time? They've got hands!"

"Not hands, paws. Paws with claws on the end. Their claws are too sharp and aren't that good for picking stuff up with. Cutting, yes. Fishing, also yes. But picking up with, they're rubbish. And anyway, they're at their sides. They won't be able to see what they're picking up a lot of the time"

"So why does Latias always have her paws out, and Latios always has them in?"

"Arceus! I don't know! So many questions! Why don't you ask them yourself?"

"Because they scare me. They'd scare you too if they'd headbutted you into a tree."

Bianca giggled again. Somehow, the idea of Mac in pain was amusing.

"That was just Latios, and he's done worse. You should see his kills. Did Latias kill anything while you looked after her?"

The question was asked innocently enough, but it made Mac lock up and freeze.

He could still remember the sound of bone breaking. Human bone. Even though it was the same noise as a chicken bone, it had a completely different sound. One that made chills run through your spine, one that would make even a serial killer wince. Yes, Latias had killed something. Someone. How he'd managed to cope with it at the time, he didn't know, but now it was over and Bianca had mentioned it, it was coming back in a rapid series of bloodied images and twisted sounds. Mac shook his head and re-entered the real world. He'd never left it, really. That memory was in the same world, just a different time. The past.

"Oh. Yeah. She killed a mouse. Didn't show it off or anything though."

Bianca frowned at Mac, concerned with the length of time he took to answer the question. Something was up, and he wasn't telling her what.

"Right. A mouse. Was that it?"

This time, Mac answered immediately.

"Yes. She didn't kill anything else."

"Hmmm... Well, they'll probably be eating now, if you want to go and see what he's caught for his new mate." Bianca broke back into a smile and nudged Mac on the word 'mate', happy that Mac had managed to reunite the pair.

Mac hadn't really been listening, slipping back into the events of two days before. So he just nodded. "Yeah. That's a good idea."

Latias and Latios had torn the Sharpedo corpse open sufficiently that it was now officially a carcass, which they were enjoying feasting on. Latias more than Latios.

It wasn't outlandishly tasty, but it was still good, and unlike most fish, very plentiful. Perfect for when you were hungry. True, it was cold where they were eating, but once she'd got used to it, Latias realised it wasn't actually that bad. She tore away another small hunk of muscle from the side of the shark and chewed it down again, using her pinprick incisors to rip through the meat, before swallowing. Whereas Latias took a load of tiny bites, Latios preferred the opposite, taking large chunks and swallowing them after a minimum amount of chewing. More than once it led to a visible lump in his neck as the food went down. From time to time he aided this by moving his neck back so his head was pointing upwards, with gravity helping pull the food down. Latias didn't know why, but she liked it when he did this.

Behind her, at the kitchen window, Bianca and Mac watched them, talking to one another, but keeping their eyes on the two dragons at the same time. Bianca was explaining the feeding process to him.

"They have two or three meals a day, depending on how hungry they are and how much they catch. We always give them breakfast and dinner, and they can choose how they have it. If it's meat for dinner, we'll give it them uncooked, seeing as it's healthier for them. If they've not caught anything for themselves or they're still hungry, we also give them lunch."

"How much do they eat?"

"Well, look at what they've got there. That's double a typical sized catch for lunch or dinner. And they'll have at least two of that per day"

"Two of that animal?"

"It's a Pokemon okay? I know where ever you're from its an 'animal', but if you say that in public here, most people will think you're a bit weird. And no, they don't have this Pokemon very often. I think Latios has just got it to show off for Latias. But as well as this, they'll have quite a few smaller ones, and Latias will collect berries for the two of them to share."

"Awwww. That's a lot though. Aren't you worried about how much they kill?"

"Huh. So long as they don't leave a mess everywhere, I don't really have an objection. They eat the bones most of the time. And they're smart enough not to eat too much of one species, otherwise it'll die out on the island and they won't be able to eat it"

"That's clever!"

"They are. Terrible at maths, though. They don't understand numbers past twenty."

Outside, Latias continued to eat, though there wasn't much left. She'd eaten most of it, and made a point of eating the part right next to Latios, so her ears were rubbing next to his whenever possible.

Latios was enjoying his meal, simply put. It wasn't just the meat, though that was exceptionally tasty. Latias was what really made the meal, even if she hadn't actually collected any berries. Her scent was everywhere, and it made him feel calm and happy. Of course, the wound in his side still hurt, but there wasn't much else he or Bianca could do about it.

It had hurt quite a lot when he was getting the Sharpedo, not that he'd paid great attention to it. To quote a film that Bianca watched when she was small, "just keep swimming". Besides, it would fix itself.

He stopped briefly to move his head back an dislodge a chunk of liver that got stuck in his throat, which prompted a giggle from Latias.

"Why are you giggling? What's so funny?"

Latias lowered her head against the kill and blushed a response back.

"Oh. Nothing, you just looked really...funny...when you did that."

"Did what?"

"That thing you do when you take a really big bite. You know, like this."

Latias pulled off a fairly good imitation of what Latios did, before putting her head back against the kill.

"Oh! Do the noise! The noise!"

"What noise?"

"You know! The one you do in the morning? It sounds like you're growling?"

Latias wouldn't tell him, but that noise made her really excited. That noise, it was a noise that only a really good mate could make.

To his credit, he tried his best. But the cut in his side still hurt too much, and he stopped abruptly after about a second, wheezing out air.

"Nope. This cut down my side hurts still."

Latias lifted her head back up and looked at him, concerned.

"Let me look at it!"

Latios didn't resist as Latias flew round to Latios' side, where the cut was, as she started rubbing it with her forehead.

Behind the kitchen window, Bianca sighed. It was so nice seeing the two of them back together, even more now they were a couple. She planned on enjoying the moment, watching the eon duo look after each other, but Mac interrupted.

"So, they're brother and sister?"

Bianca sighed and explained, still facing the window with her head supported by her hands on the windowsill.

"Yes, they're siblings. And mates. Don't let that bother you though, they're just animals after all."

"Right...and mates means..."

"That they'll have baby Lati's flying around. And if they're anything like human babies, I hope I'm not alive to help Latias cope with them." That wasn't true. In fact, there was nothing more that Bianca wanted than to see a baby Latias and a baby Latios, and help Latias and Latios look after them. But since they were legendary, it was highly likely the eggs - when Latias laid them - wouldn't hatch for decades.

"Right. So what is Latias doing now?"

Bianca thought it was blatantly obvious what was going on.

"Seriously? She's loving him. He got hurt a bit back, so she's probably just cleaning the wound again."

Latias was indeed cleaning Latios' injury, taking tiny licks along the tear in his skin. The feathers had grown back over it, but the actual cut still remained, hidden by the white and blue pattern.

"That's nice!" Latios growled back at her, trying to put on the voice she'd requested. This time it worked better, and he curled his head around and lowered his wing, enclosing Latias' as she worked.

Latias was seriously enjoying this. She was surrounded on all sides by Latios' scent, he was doing the really attractive voice, and he was protecting her. At the same time, she was making little happy noises in-between licks, pulling away any bad things and dirt that could infect the wound. Not that she knew that. In her mind, she was helping Latios and it felt good.

"Are they going to sleep?" Mac yet again pestered Bianca.

"UGH! NO! It's barely 6 o'clock and they haven't even had all of their dinner. Besides, they'll probably come in for a drink or something before they go to sleep."

"Drink? What do dragons drink?"

"Latias likes sweet things, so cider. Latios just likes to copy Lorenzo, so beer."

Mac laughed.

"And I suppose they have it in little plastic bowls with Latias and Latios written on them too?" He'd said it in a joking manor, and was surprised when Bianca pulled out two red and blue bowls from under the sink, with the respective twin's name on.

"Yep. But they don't drink out of them. They can't drink from a bowl, they always mess it up. We give them their alcohol in a glass."

Mac just shook his head.

"I've arrived at the mad house..."

Eventually, Latias and Latios had both finished cuddling and finished their meal, and yowled to be let inside. Mac and Bianca were in the lounge at the time, with Mac trying to show off on the piano. Both of them heard the noise, but Mac was the first to open his mouth.

"What's that?"

"The dragons." Bianca replied abruptly, heading for the door as Mac got up from the piano stool and followed. "They want to be let in."

"Can't they open they door with their mouths?"

"Yeah, but let's face it, they're not going to. Besides, they're probably snouting."

Mac and Bianca both made it into the kitchen and she reached for the back door.

"Snouting?"

"Yeah. Like cuddling, only with their snouts. It's what I call it when they rub their snouts together."

"Oh..."

Mac didn't really have time to put another word in, as Bianca had opened the back door, letting Latias into the house.

With a great squealing noise, Latias flew right into Mac.

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAC!".

Mac let out a whoosh of air as Latias flew right into him. From her perspective it was playful. But her perspective was that of a dragon. In reality, Mac was lucky he didn't break a rib. As it was he was winded. Latias followed him right to the floor and started poking his stomach with her snout,

"Boop! Boop! Boop!"

Mac wanted to laugh at the situation, but there wasn't enough air in his lungs, so he settled on choking instead.

Latios looked on, somewhat annoyed. Latias was his mate, she shouldn't be showing this much affection to another male! In an attempted to draw attention back to himself, he did the same thing Latias was doing to Mac, to her.

He flew in-between the two, folding his wings back as much as possible, before jabbing Latias' underside, making her squeal with laughter and rotate round so she was floating belly up, claws out and trying to cover her stomach, even though they were way too small.

Latios flew back above her and started jabbing her stomach with his snout.

"Boop! Boop! Boop!"

The plan worked, and in seconds Latias was giggling back, hovering upside down a few feet above Mac, who was still winded on the floor.

Bianca saw the silliness and for a few seconds acted mature. In the end, temptation won out, and she grabbed a tea-towel from the side, throwing it at Latios. It landed directly over his head, covering his snout and eyes.

Latios smirked. He knew Bianca had thrown the towel on him, and it was a recurring joke that they were just giant birds. Latios decided to play along with it.

"It's dark. Must be night time."

Latias realised what he was going to do next, and moved out of the way, just in time. Bianca and Mac didn't know what he even said, and had no time to react as he pretended to go to sleep, which also involved stopping levitating.

Latias and Bianca watched as 80 kilos of dragon fell to the floor with a thud. Unluckily for Mac, his legs were directly underneath, and Latios fell directly on them, triangle on his chest hitting his thighs.

"Ooooof! Latios?! Why?!" Mac groaned.

"It's night time!" He replied, both outloud and psychicly.

Mac just groaned and tried moving his legs from under Latios. The majority of his weight had missed his legs, but they were still stuck. His hands, however were not, and he whipped the towel off Latios' head. The moment he did, Latios playfully butted him in the head. Mac didn't like it as much as Latios thought he would, he still had Sharpedo blood on his mouth.

"Daytime!"

With a cheer, Latios flew off Mac, before flying after Latias, back into the house through the kitchen doorway. Their squeals continued through the house.

Mac mumbled and rubbed his head as he sat up. Bianca just smirked.

"I thought Latios was meant to be sensible. You said, you said he was the sensible one."

Bianca walked around the center table and offered Mac a hand back up. He took it and pulled himself to his feet as Bianca explained.

"Well, he is. But they're both still playful little creatures. Not normally with strangers, though. I think he's started trusting you so quickly is because of Latias' heat."

Mac glanced around the kitchen and back out the doorway. It would appear the dragons had flown into the living room.

"I see. Latias' heat seems to be the blame for a lot of things."

"Well, it's the cause of a lot of problems."

"Right. They've had their snack, what do we do now?"

"Well. I guess we could all have a drink now? That is, if you'd like one?"

"Err...sure. Where's Lorenzo?"

"Oh, probably building a boat or something. He won't mind. What do you want?"

"Err...I dunno. What are you having?"

"Cider. Same as Latias. Latios will be having cider too, since Lorenzo won't like him having his beer without him."

"Well then, it'll be a cider for me too!" Mac grinned at Bianca, staying stood still since it wasn't immediately obvious where the cider nor the glasses were stored.

Bianca smiled back at Mac. "I'll get the drinks, you can go talk to the twins. I think they went into the lounge."

"Lounge? You mean living room?"

Bianca stepped back round the center table and replied with a cheeky smile, facing the cupboards.

"No, it's a lounge. And I don't care what you used to call it either."

Mac checked and walked away into the living room.

Latios and Latias, meanwhile, had decided on a different way to sit. Ordinarily, Latios would lay on the piano and Latias would sit upright on the sofa. But when Latios went to lie on the piano this time, Latias decided to join him, whining until he lifted his left wing for her to fly under. The moment she was there, she set about cuddling his side with her snout.

Latios didn't really dislike it, if anything, it was nice. He was protecting Latias with his wing, he could feel her against his side and it was really cute. The piano was making a creaking noise because of the extra weight, but it wasn't that bad.

Latios stopped looking at Latias and watched as the door to the room opened half way, and Mac's head peeked around the edge.

"Hi Mac!" The two dragons shouted in exact unison.

Latios had to admit, another male presence was nice. Especially one like Mac. Way too weedy to be a prospect mate, but at the same time, quite cool. And playful. Bianca always projected the impression that she was playing because you nagged her, but in the day that Latios had spent with Mac, he seemed to be doing it as much for his own enjoyment. Still, Latios decided to keep an eye on Bianca when she was in heat. He didn't want her getting too attached to him.

"Oh, you're in here! On the piano?" Mac questioned, walking over to the pair perched on the piano.

Mac hadn't actually spent more than an hour conscious in the house at the same time as the dragons, so it wasn't unusual that he was only learning of their favourite places to sit now.

"I suppose it's high up, eh? And nice and soft?" Mac reached forward and experimentally held his hand above Latios head, judging if he was safe to pet.

"Yeah, really soft! Not as soft as the beanbags upstairs!" Latias coo'd, as Latios kept his head still. Eventually Mac decided it was safe and lowered his hand onto Latios' head, just behind the eyes, before stroking an arms length down his neck.

"Really interesting feathers, aren't they? The size of a pigeons feathers, double sided, really shiny. Do you keep them clean yourself?"

Mac was completely guessing when he said that. But the dragons were sentient, and grooming is important to all animals, so it made sense for Latios to clean himself and not have Bianca do it.

"Yep! We keep clean by ourselves!" Latios dutifully responded as Latias became jealous of the attention Mac was dishing out and tried to get her own fair share, pushing her head in-between Mac's hand and Latios' neck.

"I clean him too! Especially his ears!" The tactic had succeeded and Mac was now petting Latias, patting her head and stroking her neck. Latios kept a weary eye on his mate as Mac did, although he didn't seem to be hurting her or trying to steal her off him.

As Mac stopped petting Latias, he found himself in an odd position. The problem was, Latias and Latios were both sentient, thinking animals, that could speak to him. And yet, they acted like very large dogs. Or cats. Especially like when Latias competed for attention when he'd started patting Latios.

Mac stayed stood where he was and looked at the both of them, thinking of a question to ask. Well, what did he want to know?

"You guys enjoy dinner? What was it? That your kill, Latios?"

Mac expected a psychic response, but Latios just made a positive sounding noise.

"Okay then...well..."

Mac patted Latios on the head a second time, then flopped down on the sofa next to the piano. He was exhausted. Even a solid days sleeping hadn't given him enough rest from the entire ordeal of getting Latias back. And today he hadn't been particularly active.

Bianca nudged the door open and entered the room carrying a tray of drinks and two white sweets. She set the tray down on the table in the center, before throwing one of the two mint-like objects at Latios, intending him to catch it in his mouth. "Blue one! Catch!"

Latios saw the mint heading towards him and opened his mouth for it to land in. But as it got closer, he realised that it didn't smell like a mint. Or any kind of sweet. It smelled chalky, and not tasty at all.

Latios shut his mouth and lowered his snout back down against the piano. The not-sweet bounced off and fell to the carpeted floor. Latios made an unimpressed snorting noise and spoke in Lati into the piano.

"Nice try Bianca. But that's a medicine tablet. You'll have to try harder than that to get me to swallow it."

Bianca cursed herself. They hadn't been out of medicine like she'd told Latias, they'd had just these two tablets left, which she'd hoped she could fool Latios into thinking were mints. She almost had him too, and once he'd taken the medicine, Latias was more likely to. But since Latios hadn't willingly taken the medicine, she decided to try plan B.

Latias watched in panic as Bianca grabbed the other tablet and ran towards Latios, arms out and screaming. If she was trying to intimidate him, she was going the right way about it, but it still wasn't having much of an effect.

Latios kept his head firmly against the piano as Bianca reached him and tried levering his snout up from the instrument. She stopped when he barred his teeth and started growling, much to Latias' relief. Latias didn't want to, but all her instincts were telling her she should stop Bianca from attacking her mate, which was essentially what she was doing.

Mac observed Bianca changing tactics, going down on her haunches and putting her eyes level with the blue eon.

"Now Latios, don't be silly. It's one tablet, it's not going to hurt."

"No."

"Stop sulking. You're going to have this one way or another. Have it or...I'm going to...not talk to you for a month." That was one she had used with mixed results before. Latios loved social interaction, even if he pretended not to. If she ignored him, he'd go mental after a few hours.

The hole in her plan was that Latios was now mates with Latias, meaning the requiem for someone to talk to was not as great.

"Whatever. You won't do it. I have Latias." Latios curled his neck around his partner to prove the point.

Bianca didn't understand the words, but his attitude was enough to get the gist.

"I'll do it! I can talk to Mac instead!"

Latios remained silent, tables turned as he hugged his mate closer, snout now pointing inwards towards Latias. Suddenly, he was the one ignoring Bianca.

"Fine then. I'll talk to Mac. Hi, Mac!" Mac played along.

"Hi Bianca!"

Latios didn't stir, lost in his own world that contained him and his mate only.

"So, Mac, do you go to the gym?" A random question, but one that Latios would surely comment on. He couldn't resist butting in on anything to do with manliness and masculinity. Anything to show off to Latias.

"Er...a gym?" Mac stuttered. They had those here too?

Latios responded this time, the urge to pass a smart remark too strong to contain.

"Yeah, Mac. A gym. Exercise gym. You know, where humans go to say who's the better male because they can't hunt things any more. Gym."

Bianca immediately pounced as Latias made a giggling noise at the smart aleck.

"I thought you weren't talking to us?"

As was inevitable, Latios turned quiet again.

"Right. Whatever. So, Mac, what do you think of Altomare so far?"

Mac took a sip of the drink Bianca had handed him and answered, deciding not to question the taste of the bizarre drink. Whatever flavour cider it was, it definitely wasn't any he recognized.

"Well, I've only been in this place awake for a few hours. Your house is big, four stories!"

"It has to be to fit those two in. Bulky wings and rubbish cornering!"

Latios heard the comment and Bianca knew it because she saw his ears twitch, the way they normally did when he knew he was being referenced. Other than that, though, he stayed unresponsive. Mac carried on.

"I haven't been outside yet, but from what I've seen, there's a lot of water."

"Yep. That's not what ALL the places in Hoenn are like, there's a mainland about 50 miles away. But on this island you really need either a boat or a Pokemon with surf to get around. There are walkways, but none from this house."

"Do Latias and Latios know surf?"

"Duh! Yes! But you can't use them, because someone would see them and try catching them."

"Right. Will anyone be planning on teaching me how to boat then? Or will I be stuck in the house?"

"Lorenzo should have a spare boat in his workshop. I guess you can use that. Tomorrow? We could go out and I could show you how to captain? Using a float like mine is less tiring, but you need to persuade a Pokemon to let them put a harness on them. Which I don't think you'd like doing."

Latias spoke up psychicly and vocally, but stayed where she was.

"Not tomorrow! We're going to Katie tomorrow! Absol has had pups! We're going to see them and I'm going to see if I can help her!"

Bianca blinked.

"Really!? How do you know that?"

"She called while you were in the shower."

"Oh. Okay then...change of plan, then. Tomorrow, we'll get Lorenzo to boat us to Katie's house. That should be fun. Then Mac can learn to boat in the afternoon. We can go out to eat in the evening."

Mac nodded, half wondering what exactly an Absol pup looked like, and half wondering how he was going to learn to captain a boat.

"But enough about here! You'll learn about it sooner or later...where do you come from, exactly?"

Mac sighed and leaned back. It was a good job they had a few hours spare.

* * *

And readers who want to know what happened with Mac, who he is and how he saved Latias, take a look at my story 'Home', since in this story I'm going to gloss o'er that for now and start the next chapter with our characters going to bed.

Also, who likes the tension I built up between Mac and Bianca? Are they friends? More than friends? Read on to find out. Also don't forget to review!

Final note, something big is about to happen in the online fiction world. Well, moderately big...


	3. Chapter 3

An hour and a half in, and Mac still hadn't finished, when Lorenzo walked in with Cubone on his shoulder. He'd barely finished the part where they'd broken out of the printing press.

Mac glanced at Lorenzo, and he nodded, realising what Mac was explaining and indicating him to carry on. Another hour and a half passed, but eventually Mac finished.

There was a silence as everyone absorbed the three hour story. Eventually, Bianca broke it.

"Well...that's some adventure..."

"Yeah" Mac sighed. "Let's never do that again..." He turned to look at Latias, only to find both dragons asleep, Latias tucked up under Latios' wing and Latios' head curled around her. Mac stopped and looked at them.

"Oh...that's so...?"

"Adorable?" Bianca suggested.

"Yeah. I was going to say cute, but I guess that'll work too." Bianca grinned back at him. But a few seconds later her face dropped.

"There's a few things that you missed from that story I think. A few things just don't add up, mind if I ask?"

Mac realised he was rumbled. He'd tried to avoid the parts where people had died, but it had led to some plot flaws and it looked like Bianca had picked up on them. He spoke with a dry mouth.

"Like? I'm really tired and-"

"You said there were seven policemen at the train station. You knocked out six, which is impressive. What happened to the last one?"

Mac thought fast.

"I knocked him out too, I just forgot to say."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"You're lying. If you'd have knocked all of them out, you'd have said. You wouldn't just 'forget' something like that."

Lorenzo interrupted. "Now Bianca, don't be so harsh. I'm sure he's entitled to miss out a few details. It must have been a very rough day, after all. Mac?"

"Yeah. I just forgot is all."

But Bianca wouldn't let the case rest.

"But the pilot wouldn't just LET you jump out of his plane. I don't think you can even open the doors wh-"

"BIANCA!" Lorenzo finally lost his temper. "It sounds unlikely, but as long as it got Latias here, you don't need to complain. All will be discovered in its course."

While granddad and granddaughter stared each other down, Mac made the tactical decision to go to the bathroom and excused himself. Unfortunately, so did Bianca, claiming she'd use the other toilet. The moment they were out of the closed door, Bianca cornered Mac, which was a sight to see as he was taller by a head.

"Listen, MAC." she whispered, spitting out the word 'Mac' instead of saying it.

"Latias came back with blood on her snout. She'd have only got that by hunting land animals, and she NEVER goes hunting without Latios. How did that get there? Huh?"

Mac stuttered, but stuck to his story, keeping his arms at his side and generally being submissive.

"Oh, she just nicked my arm. Bit me by accident. My own fault, put my arm in the wrong place."

"Liar. Show me."

In hindsight, Mac realised he could have just said that Latias got desperate and hunted without Latios anyway, but it was too late to change his mind now. Mac rolled up his sleeve and revealed a gash in the skin. It wasn't too bad and he couldn't remember getting it, but it certainly looked deep. Bianca wasn't convinced.

"Latias didn't make this, and if she did, it wasn't by accident. She'd have made a puncture if it was an accident, not a gash. Anyway, there's not enough blood for this. So, let's try again. What. Did. She. Do?"

"She got home safely! That's all that matters, surely?"

Bianca sighed. At the end of the day, it was true. But at the same time, she was highly suspicious of Mac's story and the blood on Latias' snout. It just seemed awfully convenient that no one died in their quest to get back. Especially what Latias was in season and tracking down her mate, it wouldn't take much to provoke her. Bianca changed her approach, changing her voice and face to sound sweeter and more accepting.

"I'm sorry. It's just. Well...Latias doesn't have as many morals as we do. And if she was angry, well, there's no telling what she would've done. So I just want to know: did Latias injure anyone while you were trying to get back? I'm not going to hurt her, but I need to know."

Mac considered it. Bianca WAS her owner after all. She might as well know.

Mac sighed before speaking again.

"Yes. She did."

"Who? And how badly? Why?"

"She killed a policeman - who was about to shoot me - with a death ray thing..."

Bianca looked shocked but his tone told her there was more, so held out from exploding.

"She bit the co-pilot on the plane and he probably died with the amount of blood there was."

When Bianca spoke, her tone was like steel. Cold, hard and unforgiving. Cast iron. "What do you mean, 'probably'? How can you not know something important like that?"

Mac gulped. "Well...the pilot fell on her and it looked like he crushed her wing. So, she was, like, startled and she...she..."

The memories came back, but not the words to describe it. Dismembered? Ate? Tore apart? Consumed? Crunched?

Bianca stood as Mac ground to a halt. She felt sorry for him, she really did. And she felt horrible for treating him the way she was, backing him into the corner after the bad time he'd had as of late. But she needed to know. Not so much to punish Latias but to remind her about etiquette towards humans.

"She...she...er..."

"Killed?" Mac gulped it down and carried on before he broke down completely.

"The pilot...and...then...ate his leg. Then the plane exploded from a missile that the people chasing us fired." Mac looked downcast.

"Ah." Bianca wasn't really quite sure what else to say. Well, what else was there to say to someone who was practically responsible for the deaths of a hundred people?

"It's okay Mac. That wasn't really your fault, I'm sure. It's whoever was chasing you'd fault." She was trivialising it so badly, and it wasn't strictly true, but it'd do for now.

"It wasn't Latias' fault either though! She was just doing-"

"What she needed to do to survive. I know. I'm not going to yell at her, but..."

Mac didn't want Bianca to punish Latias. And he didn't want her to tell Lorenzo either. Mac didn't fancy the idea of having him find out he was technically a mass murderer. Bianca tried explaining her point further.

"Listen, Mac. Do you know the four 'F' thing?"

"No. Why? What's that got to do with Latias...killing someone?"

"The four F's are the four things that govern everything she does. It's the same for all animals. Anything she does can fit into those four categories."

Mac couldn't see where this was going.

"And they are?"

"Fighting, Feeding, Fleeing and Fuc-"

"Finding a mate." Mac quickly interrupted before Bianca continued.

"Right. So, I need to know WHY she did those things. Because it wasn't fleeing, and it wasn't finding a mate, unless she wanted to impress you. Which she didn't. So she either did it to fight, or to feed. And if it was to feed, it's probably a wise idea to tell her that humans are not food."

"I see. Not to sound ungrateful, but can we discuss this another time when my back isn't up against a wall? Tomorrow? Lorenzo's probably wondering why I'm spending so long on the toilet."

Bianca glared at him. "Okay. We'll talk about this later, but I'm not going to involve Granddad. Unless I have to."

She composed herself and walked back into the living room, stood in the doorway and looked at the situation. Cubone had come off Lorenzo's shoulder and ended up sleeping sideways on his lap. Lorenzo smiled when he saw Bianca notice.

"Look at the little fella. Daft as a Skitty!"

"Huh. Is he asleep then or?"

"Fast on. Poor guy, I wanna get up and go to my bed, but that'll wake him up."

Bianca sighed and walked over to Lorenzo, leaning over his lap and hitching Cubone by the shoulders.

"Guess I'll make myself the unpopular one..."

Cubone groggily opened an eye, but when he saw it was Bianca picking him up, he closed it again. She would take him somewhere just as warm and safe, he trusted her to it.

Bianca heaved Cubone's weight and cradled him like a baby.

"How did you carry this on your shoulder?! What does he weigh, thirty kilos?"

Lorenzo didn't get the sarcasm.

"Nope, ten. Almost average."

Bianca grunted again and turned to face the piano, where the sleeping dragons were. Well, Latias always said she wanted to look after some kids. Which presumably involved putting them to bed. Or nest. Whatever it was Latis actually did with their young.

Bianca shifted Cubone into one arm and lifted Latias' innermost wing with the other. She opened her eyes, but didn't do anything else. No one's aura was panicked. Everything was fine.

Latios noticed the movement too, and smelt Cubone and Bianca. No actual threats though, unless Bianca had a medicine tablet. Which it didn't smell like she did. He stayed alert but kept his eyes closed to maintain the illusion he was still asleep.

Slowly, Bianca lowered Cubone under Latias' wing. The moment he felt her feathers, he moved a paw around to lightly grab them. Bianca gently lowered the wing back down again and admired her handiwork.

Latios was on the outermost of the piano's edge. Latias was next, curled up in the opposite direction but protected by Latios' curved body. Cubone's skull just peeked out from under Latias' wing, but the rest of him was covered.

Bianca sniffed. It was so nice seeing them like that. Cubone didn't seem like he'd known his mother or his father, but this make-shift adopted family seemed perfect. Even if they were technically nurturing their pray.

Latias smiled. She could feel Cubone's itty bitty body squashed up against her side, underneath her wing, and if she closed her eyes, she could pretend they were little Latias' and Latios', cuddling down under her wing for protection. As it was, it felt nice knowing Cubone was there. Perhaps tomorrow she could show him some berries he might like. She made an involuntary cooing sound in her happiness.

At this point, Mac wandered in.

"So, what I mi...oh". Bianca hadn't realised, but Lorenzo had also joined her in looking at the family. Mac entered the room to see them gazing at the piano and holding each other's backs, using each other for support as well as enjoying the moment.

Mac felt like an intruder, all of a sudden. This wasn't his house. This wasn't his family. Why was he intruding on this private moment?

Bianca turned around and had a small tear in her eye.

"Oh! Mac. Stay quiet! Look at this! Don't make any loud noises!"

Mac was confused, but nodded anyway and tiptoed over next to Bianca. He saw what they were looking at and was humbled. Seeing the three Pokemon all happy like that made him almost forget what he'd been through to get to that point, just for this moment.

Bianca put an arm around him and drew him closer, as close as Lorenzo, and spoke in a hushed whisper.

"Thanks, Mac. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have got to see this." Mac didn't know how to respond, but Bianca hadn't finished anyway.

She turned towards Mac, went up on tiptoes, and planted a kiss on his cheek, before turning back to the piano, leaving Mac confused.

"Er...no problem, Bianca. I'm glad to be here too."

The three stood and looked a while longer before Mac moved Bianca's arm from behind him and stretched.

"Well, it's been nice today. I'm going to go to bed now, if that's okay?"

Lorenzo and Bianca nodded simultaneously, but this time Lorenzo spoke.

"Sure. Err...yeah. Tomorrow, we're going to see some baby Pokemon, you'll like that. Leaving here at ten. I'll do breakfast, but you don't have to have it if you'd prefer a lie-in. Just be ready to leave by ten."

Mac nodded. "Thanks, Lorenzo! Good night!" Mac made for the door but stopped when Lorenzo called him back. Mac peeked his head around the door.

"Mac, one more thing."

"Yes?"

"You don't have to call me Lorenzo, you're family. Gramps, dad, uncle... Anything's fine"

"Oh, okay. G'night Gramps!" Mac darted behind the door with a smile, and jogged up the flight of stairs and a ladder to his room, feeling happier than he had in a long time.

Downstairs, the two remaining humans were still chatting in hushed voices. Lorenzo sounded pleased.

"He's a good one. I like him. Not like Jay." Bianca glowered at him and he corrected himself.

"Sorry, forgot. No Jay. Seriously though, how old is Mac? 17? He's Perfect!"

"Well...that was so nice, though. You telling him he was family. He looked really pleased when he left."

"I thought he might. He hasn't had a good time as of late has he?"

Bianca shook her head. If only Lorenzo knew half of what he'd ACTUALLY been through. She still couldn't believe it herself.

"Anyway, I'm off to bed too, we've got puppies to see tomorrow! Good night!"

Lorenzo headed for the door too, but carried on speaking as he went through it, leaving Bianca alone in the room on his last words.

"Be nice to Mac. He's a good guy. But I'm watching you two..."

Behind closed eyes, Latios was listening in too. He didn't coo anything, but inside his head, the cogs were turning.

'Yeah. Me too, Bianca. I'm watching him VERY closely.'

* * *

The next day, Bianca woke in a good mood. Judging from the light through her curtains, the sun was shining. It was still cold, but at least it was sunny. She glanced at the clock: 8:30.

She pulled on a robe, slipped on some slippers, and headed downstairs to see what was stirring. It turned out the answer was nothing. Even Lorenzo was absent, still in cloud cuckoo land.

Bianca was impatient to get moving and see the little Absol babies. They were gonna be SO cute!

She wandered into the living room and looked at the piano. Sure enough, all three Pokemon were still sleeping peacefully.

How funny it would be - Bianca mused - if she could startle all three at one? True, there was a massive potential for injury. But their reactions would be priceless. It was therefore perfect that they were all sleeping on top of a very loud musical instrument. The Piano.

Bianca made her way to the front of the piano and glared at the keys. Mac had told her how to make a chord, and which pedal made it louder.

Bianca ducked, pressed a pedal with her foot and slammed her hands down on the keys, creating the loudest crash of notes ever. Even Mac on the second floor would have heard it, except it was replaced by something much louder.

With a yelp, all three Pokemon that were seconds ago happily sleeping flew up, and, in Latias' and Latios' case, hit the ceiling.

"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Latias snapped and flew close to Latios. Latios didn't so much yelp as just growl at the piano. Bianca was under it, cracking up laughing. Their reaction had been comic, to say the least.

"What's that? Bianca?" Latias sniffed the air and quickly located Bianca under the piano, trying to hold in her laughing. Latias stuck her head under the piano and licked Bianca's cheek by way of a hello.

"Hi Latias!" Bianca looked up at the red eon with a smile on her face. Latias cheered when Bianca gave her a quick scratch behind the ear.

"Are we going to see the Absol puppies today?" Latias asked, without a psychic translation.

"No, Lorenzo's making breakfast. But I reckon you'll have woken him up with that racket!"

As Bianca crawled out from under the piano, Latias nudged her elbow with her snout.

"I'm not the one making the noise! You surprised us!"

"No, I just said. If you want breakfast, pester Lorenzo."

Latias rolled her eyes and went back to Latios. They met snout to snout in mid air above Cubone and started chattering.

"Why'd she do that?" Latios asked, playfully licking the top of Latias' snout.

"Hehe! I don't know. She could have just tapped me..."

"Probably did it for the laughs. She certainly looks happy. Hi Cubone!"

Cubone had only just recovered from the sudden awakening, but received another surprise when Latios picked him up by the skull on his head.

The lift didn't last that long though, as Latios' sharp teeth lost their grip on the bone and Cubone was dropped back onto the piano.

"Hi Laaaaah!"

"Sorry Cubone. You okay?" Latios settled with curling his neck around to face him.

Cubone righted himself again with his tail and responded somewhat sourly.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I just love being woken up by two screaming dragons and then have the big one pick me up by the head. Really makes a good start to the day."

Latios flattened his ears out as Latias started nagging him in a playful manner as well.

"Yeah, Latios. Why'd you have to grab Cubone like that? Everyone knows you're meant to pick him up like this!"

Cubone realised too late what Latias was going to do, and turning to run away only exposed the area Latias was targeting.

With a yelp, Latias swooped down and grabbed Cubone by the scruff of his neck in her teeth. She too dropped him a second later as the rear section of the skull helmet clacked against her teeth. For the second time in under a minute, Cubone fell to the cushioned top of the piano.

Latias made a disappointed noise as Latios scoffed at her failed attempt. Cubone, meanwhile, had made it to the edge of the piano that Bianca had just popped her head over.

"Oh, Hello Cubone!" Without any further confirmation, Bianca got up and picked him up, plonking him on her shoulder like Lorenzo. Once he was balancing right - she realised - he wasn't that heavy.

"Come on, let's go and surprise Mac. Just in case those two didn't do it already." Bianca nodded at the eons, who were face to face and quietly chatting again. She got up and left the room.

"I'm going to go to the lake. Wanna swim with me?" Latias giggled at Latios.

"What do you think?" It was obviously a yes.

Mac could feel a light tickling on his nose, and subconsciously moved his hand to brush away the irritation. But a few seconds later, it returned.

Mac opened an eye from sleep and screamed. Looking back at him was some kind of miniature skeleton, with brown eyes hidden behind a skull.

The scream lasted about three seconds, then died out when Mac heard laughing.

He looked over the miniature thing and at the source of the laughter, which was Bianca, laid out on the floor and laughing hysterically. He waited patiently with a stern face for the giggles to die down. Bianca eventually calmed down, composed herself, looked at Mac again, and cracked up laughing again, squeezing out a few words between each laugh.

"You were all...and then...'AHHHHHH'". Mac had to admit, his reaction had been a bit over the top.

Mac turned around in his sleeping bag and patted Cubone on the skull helmet, prompting a cute semi-growl. Mac decided to apologise to him while Bianca recovered.

"Sorry, Cubone. I really didn't expect you! Did Bianca make you do that?"

The same semi-growl.

Mac looked at his temporary bedroom again.

The second floor of the house (third if you were counting the ground floor) used to be a place for storing things. There was an art studio as well, but seeing as you needed to climb a ladder to get to the floor, Bianca hardly used it. Mac was laid on the floor in a sleeping bag in said art studio, staring at a set of semi-opaque curtains covering a window facing the back of the house. It was light outside, and by the light he could see various art supplies scatted about the room - easels, rolls of canvas, paint tins...

"Sorry about that Mac! That was so funny! I mean, you just..." Bianca started laughing again, even as she stood up and offered Mac a hand up as well.

Mac slithered out of the bag. He was still wearing the borrowed clothes from the day before, and Bianca frowned.

"You're dressed?"

"Yeah, what's wrong with that?"

"Ugh...best if I don't carry on those lines. It's half eight, we're going to see Absol's puppies in an hour and a half!"

Mac brushed himself down to Bianca's distaste, as the two humans and one Pokemon walked out of the room and towards the ladder.

"Bianca...what exactly is an 'Absol puppy'?"

"An Absol is a Pokemon. The puppy is a newborn one."

"Oh. Okay then."

There was a break in their conversation while Bianca pulled the ladder down so they could go downstairs.

* * *

Latias dove headfirst into the lake, followed shortly after by Latios. They were competing to see who could make the smallest splash, and as always, Latias was winning. It wasn't really a fair competition, because Latios was heavier and bigger then his sister.

"THAT SPLASH WAS HUGE!" Latias communicated to her brother under the water. The communication was different in that it was more of a high pitched whining noise than a coo. It also wasn't typical Pokéspeak, so any other Pokémon that were listening in would be unable to figure out what was said. The speech was done entirely though closed lips, preventing water from entering while they were speaking.

"Yeah yeah...I'm bigger than you, what do you expect?"

"I could have seen that one a mile off!"

Latios was swimming just behind Latias, watching her tail fins wiggle up and down as she propelled herself through the water. Latios didn't have particularly big tail fins, and was reduced to just psychicly propelling himself.

"And? I could see YOU a mile away without the splash". Latios was referring to Latias' version of camouflage being a bright red down.

In response, Latias turned invisible. It was next to useless in stopping Latios from finding her because he could track her scent, or her aura. But it made a point.

"I can still see you!" Latios teased, before playfully swimming right up behind Latias and lightly biting her tail feathers. Latias squealed partly in surprise, partly in delight.

"Hey!"

"Nom! Tastey Latias!"

Latias giggled more and sped up. Soon they were racing through the canals of Alto Mare. Latios had a power advantage, but Latias was using her fins and wiggling her rear to gain an acceleration boost out of the corners.

"First one to catch breakfast!" Latios called, realising that he might not win the swimming race and changing the goalposts. And because Latias was hungry, she agreed and took a right turn onto a smaller but deeper canal. Pokemon didn't swim in the major canals because too many tourists tried catching them. So by switching to the smaller rivers, the chance of finding one increased.

Latias spotted a set of bright orange scales heading towards her, and intercepted it with her teeth, before coming to a dead stop and boasting to Latios.

"I caught one! I WIN! YOU'VE LOST!"

Latios shook his head as he eyed up the fish.

"Magikarp don't count. There's too many, you have to dodge them. Anything but Magikarp."

"You're just jealous you didn't get one!"

Latios shook his head and Latias knew he was right. Magikarp weren't great food. Certainly not for the first meal of the day.

Latias spat the fish out and after the initial momentum, it swam away with just four bite marks to show for it's encounter. Latios hummed as the pair watched it wiggle away.

"Latias, you know you're meant to shake it right? Or at least bite harder than that? What if it tried attacking back?"

"I know! But it's a Magikarp. All they do is splash."

"Still..."

* * *

"What's this?"

Mac prodded his breakfast cereal with his spoon. Bianca was happily eating hers, but something in Mac's expression made him seem reluctant.

"Raymons Flakes."

"No. They're Frosties."

"Frosties?"

"Yeah. Definitely."

Lorenzo chuckled, drinking a glass of orange juice and staring out of the kitchen window as the two teens nattered.

"Well, it says Raymons on the box. Your choice."

Mac took a spoonful and ate it cautiously.

"Yep. Frosties. I don't like Frosties". Mac didn't sound like he was complaining, he just sounded genuinely disappointed.

"Oh well. You can have some of Latias' dragon food if you want."

Mac looked up, somewhat interested. Lorenzo sighed but didn't turn away from the window. "Don't fall for it Mac, it's vile."

"Could it make me breathe fire?"

Lorenzo and Bianca spoke at the same time.

"No,"  
"Yes,"

Lorenzo sighed and turned around.

"Don't fall for it, Mac. The dragons get their power from power they're born with, not from their food. Anyway, don't listen to her, It's disgusting."

Mac looked at Bianca.

"Bianca? Really?"

She just shrugged and went back to her own cereal. "Well, it was worth a try."


	4. Chapter 4

"Hi Bianca! And Lorenzo! Aaaaand...Latias?"

Latias nodded her beret-less Bianca-imitation head as she stepped off the boat and onto the jetty outside Katie's house. Katie turned her head to look at Mac.

"And you are...don't tell me, I'll remember...Micheal?"

"Mac."

"Mac! I knew it! Bianca texted me all about you! I'm so glad you got Latias back, by the way!"

"We all are." Lorenzo grunted as he disembarked from the boat last, tying it up around a pole whilst Bianca stopped Mac from complaining about the lack of life vests, and Katie chatted to Latias.

"So then, you and the blue one are mates now?" Katie nudged Latias in the side, making her put her hand to her mouth like she was giggling.

"Speaking of, where is he?"

Latios was flying invisibly a few feet above, and gave Katie an invisible face-rub at his mention. Katie jolted, surprised, but calmed down after the initial contact.

"Oh right. Still no human form then..." - she patted the invisible dragon twice and then turned back to Latias.

"You can tell me all about it later." Katie winked at Latias, leaving her somewhat confused. Tell her about what? While Latias mulled over that, Katie addressed the entire family.

"Well then...follow me. We've just had breakfast, but I could put some coffee on for you if you like?"

Bianca nodded to her friend as they entered the house. "Just wait until Latias can't see." Katie nodded back but Mac was confused.

"Why isn't Latias allowed to see coffee?" he asked.

Bianca replied as Latias ran to the back of the house, eager to see her snow-colored quadruped friend.

"The steam from the kettle confuses both of them, they don't understand it. I think they think it's an enemy or something. On a good day they they'll lie down on the counter and growl at it until it stops. On a bad day they'll attack it, and you don't want to see that. Boiling water everywhere."

Mac winced, though he was also amused that an animal that could communicate telepathically was also baffled by vaporized water.

Katie's house was almost identical to Bianca's, but smaller, and by the time that sentence had finished, they were already at the back door, which Latias was opening. The moment it opened, Latios stuck his now visible snout through the doorway and into Latias' face. Latias stepped outside and transformed as well, and soon both dragons were snout to snout again, in plain sight of the humans. Katie sighed.

"Awww...they look so cute together!"

Mac made a retching noise which earned him a dig in the ribs from Bianca. Lorenzo chuckled at the friendly gesture, pleased that the dragons were happy and that the two young adults had quickly become friends.

"How about we stay in here, catch up and have our coffee first, then see Absol? She's probably still sleeping right now." Katie asked as the dragons flew down the garden towards Absol's scent regardless.

The humans nodded, and Mac - being the typical Englishman - asked if they had any tea. He really had longed for a proper cuppa.

Latias couldn't wait to see her friend again, especially after the adventure she'd had. And the puppies! She could already smell the scent of the seven newborns, and it was coming from the very end of the garden, just behind a square of hedges. In a second, Latias was there, and coo'd at the sight.

Absol was on her side, eyes closed, while 6 little Absol pups had their heads pressed up against her underside, feeding. Each pup was no bigger than a water bottle, and had various irregular patches of white fur. A seventh pup was patting Absol's face from time to time, before trying to suckle on her nose, prompting her to open her eyes and - rather harshly - bat away the newborn with her front paw, knocking it over for a few seconds,during which it would make a crying noise, before repeating the whole process all over again.

It was after the second repetition of this that Absol actually noticed her legendary friends hovering a meter above the ground and infront of her. Her response was less than ecstatic, and very weak.

"Latias! You're back. Don't suppose you have any milk for this pup?" The pup was batted away with a whine again.

"Nice to meet you too. I had a great time, since you asked."

"I'm serious. They've been milking non stop for the last night."

"Does it LOOK like I make milk?" Latias exposed her front to make the point that flying Pokemon didn't produce milk. The pup tried biting Absol's nose again and it was batted away again, tumbling head over underdeveloped paw for the umpteenth time. Latias lost it.

"Hey! That pup just wants feeding! Why don't you just swap it with one of the others!" Latias then made the mistake of trying to pick the pup up.

Absol saw Latias go for the pup and did the only thing that she had the energy to, which was to lightly tap her on the snout. It was a light tap, but it was right on her nose, her weak spot, and it sent Latias reeling backwards, head buried in wing to alleviate the stinging. Latios was on Absol in a second.

"What was that for! She's my mate, you can't do that!"

Absol didn't seemed thrilled by Latios shouting at her either, and the growl sent the small pup cowering behind Absol's back paws.

"Oh great, you're mates now. You don't smell it. Latios, be a friend and get me some meat?"  
"No, you hit my mate!"  
"She was going to take my pup!"  
"Only because you weren't looking after it!"  
"Every time I swap it with another pup, it gets bullied out of the way again. And I'm too tired to do anything else. They must have drunk two liters of milk already."

Latios saw her point, but wasn't about to go apologising to the Pokemon that had just attacked Latias. Even if she was recovered and flying back to him, sneaking her way under his wing.

"Well, they're your pups."  
"Yeah, and I don't have a mate, and I can't catch any meat like this. Please?"

Latias nuzzled Latios' neck and he realised he was stuck. Latias wanted him to help too, apparently having forgiven Absol, and at the end of the day, it was the right thing to do.

"Alright. Wait here, I'll see what I can find". Before he could change his mind, Latios jetted off upwards in search of food.

Absol waited until he was out of hearing range - which was a substantial distance - as Latias hovered patiently.

"You do realize how lucky you are having such a powerful mate, right?"  
"Oh Yeah! He's great, isn't he?!" Absol just made a grunting noise.  
"You don't smell like you've mated yet"  
"We haven't. He's being all cute right now and giving me loads of gifts. Just watch what he brings back!"

Absol made a whining noise as the additional pup ran back to her front from behind her tail and bit her nose again. Before she could hit it away again, Latias intervened.

"Can I groom it?"  
"No. He's mine."  
"But you're hurting! I'll only hold him until Latios gets back. Please?"  
"No, get your own offspring. Besides, you'll just scare him."  
"I'm not scary!"  
"You're a hundred times bigger than him and bright red. You're frightening."  
"If I look after him for a second it'll stop him from biting you!"

This actually made Absol rethink. The pup was being annoying, and Latias did have that motherly streak...

"Okay then...but don't move him too quickly..."

Latias nodded, then slowly swooped down and picked the pup up by its scruff in her teeth. For a few seconds the pup was confused and paddled its paws around in the air. It stopped soon though and wore a disgruntled face, not pleased with it's sudden relocation by something it couldn't see. It could still see and smell Absol though, and she wasn't doing anything, so whatever must be happening must not be dangerous.

Latias moved it about three feet away from Absol before she made a growling noise.

"That's far enough." Latias obediently put the pup gently back on the ground. Almost immediately it tried running back Absol, but it was weak and not practised in the art of galloping, and it fell face-first over its front legs after two steps.

Again, Latias picked it up by the scruff, and this time when she put it down, she lowered her whole body around it, then let go. The pup took a look at the comparatively giant red Pokemon surrounding it and bawled, pinning its tail between its legs and hiding its face against the ground.

Absol responded with a growling noise, hinting at Latias to give the pup back, but she ignored it, and started to groom the micro-Absol. It stopped whining almost immediately after Latias' tongue came into contact with its fur. The fur itself had picked up a lot of dirt from when Absol had been knocking it over, but other than that, the pup was clean. Nurse Joy had clearly washed them at length after they were born. Absol stopped growling when Latias moved the rest of herself around so that Absol could see the pup.

Latias made a collective of motherly noises as she cleaned up the pup, even managing to roll him over with her snout to clean his underside. She wasn't 100% satisfied though. Under all the fur, the pup was dangerously thin. Perhaps the only reason it wasn't fighting her back was because it was too tired?

"Absol, when Latios comes back with food, you've got to give this puppy some. It's starving."

Absol seemed weaker than before and only had the one eye open when she responded.

"Yeah." She closed the remaining open eye, which made Latias feel immensely proud. The fact that Absol trusted her with the pup while her eyes were closed was a real honor.

In reality, Absol had just passed out from a mixture of exhaustion and starvation, having lost almost half her weight in under a day as a result of the feeding pups.

Latias made more soothing noises to the silent pup as she gave it another clean, unaware of her friends dire situation.

The switch on the kettle clicked off automatically and almost immediately Katie picked it up off the stand, emptying it into two mugs filled with coffee powder, for her and Bianca. Lorenzo didn't drink coffee, and Mac was still struggling with the lack of tea, which Katie was explaining.

"There IS tea in Alto Mare. But we don't have it regularly, so we don't have any tea bags or anything. I don't think many people drink it at all any more, really..."

Mac sighed and Bianca laughed. Mac looked like a sad puppy with the face he was pulling. She slapped his shoulder and smiled at him.

"Tell you what, Mac. If you do well on the boat riding thing this evening, I'll buy some tea bags."

"Really?" Mac immediately perked up. Katie butted in before Bianca could answer.

"You're teaching Mac to captain! Ha! How much are tickets?"

"Three teabags. Yorkshire Brew or better." Mac half-heartedly quipped back, quoting his favourite brew of tea.

Bianca and Katie both exchanged a confused look and Mac looked horrified. "Mac, what's a Yorkshire brew?"

It was all Mac could do not to fall on his knees and howl in despair.

Latios swooped in low towards Latias, cooing through his kill as he did.

"Absol! Good news! Latias! Bad news!"

Absol was asleep, and Latias was biting the knotted bits of fur out from underneath the pup's chin, so the closest she got to responding was the standard prick of the ears as her mate called to her.

Latios finished the dive by dropping the kill directly halfway inbetween Latias and Absol. It was an Electrike, and other than the small punctures in its neck, it seemed unharmed. It hit the ground with a flop and stayed still though, definitely dead. Latios whined.

"Oh great. I get her some meat and she falls asleep. ABSOL! FOOD!" He shouted the last part in Absol's direction. The pups that were suckling flinched, but carried on feeding, language too undeveloped to understand what 'food' meant. Absol stayed asleep, and Latias distracted him.

"Look at me, Latios! Look! Look how clean the little Absol is!"

Latios turned his head and looked at Latias. She had her head resting against the ground, and she was staring at the pup she was cleaning. It still had its tail between its legs and it's face pressed into the floor.

"Latias, I think you should give him back. He's terrified."  
"But, he's not. If he was scared he would attack, right?"  
"It's a pup, Latias. I don't think they know how to attack, and anyway, he's probably tired. Absol needs to wake up now, give him back."  
"But-"  
"Now, Latias."

Latias picked the pup up by its scruff and plonked it down directly in front of Absol's unresponsive face. It caught the scent of its mother and immediately got up and bit her nose. Absol didn't even flinch.

Latios and Latias watched with growing concern as the pup whined in Absol's face and bit her repeatedly, to receive no response. Latias looked at Latios as the pair floated next to each other.

"What was the bad news?"

Latios didn't turn away from watching, feeling slightly edgy about Absol, but answered all the same.

"It's going to snow soon. In the next two days."  
"And the good news?"

"Absol likes snow." Latias sighed and went back to staring at the pup, who started becoming increasingly distressed. Latias started to panic.

"Shouldn't Absol be awake by now? We've got food." Latios nodded, narrowing his eyes, thinking.

Latias was the first to notice the disturbance in the feeding pups. The one closest to her had stopped suckling, and was scraping its front right paw around Absol's underside. The scraping turned into patting, until the pup was frantically kneading Absol's underside, making panicked 'mew' noises.

"Latios..."

"I know...It doesn't...I don't know. Why would it do that?"

Latias wasn't sure either. It sounded like the pup wanted feeding. And it was patting Absol's underside because..? Did it want protection? Was it too cold?

One by one, the other pups joined in, until they were all howling at Absol, who remained deaf to them. Latias figured it out first and cried to Latios.

"Absol's not making any more milk! They're hungry and she's stopped making milk!"

Latios put the other pieces together as he flew around in a circle above her, agitated, trying to figure out their next move.

"And she'd only do that if she didn't have anything else to give. Which means she's starving!"

Latias read her aura to figure out what state she was in, as Latios circled above, trying to think. It didn't look good.

"She's fainted, but it's almost like a coma. What do we do?"

"Humans?"

"Right."

Latios flew towards the house and Latias flew as close to the pups as she could, trying to get them to follow her scent. The plan backfired when her snout brushed a particularly active pup, and it reared back on its hind legs, growling. Latias thought it was cute, because the growl was stupidly high pitched, but it also acted as a warning call to the rest of the pups, each of which decided to scatter in a different direction.

Unaware of the situation, Bianca was sipping her coffee and chatting with Katie, who was in turn asking Mac questions. The particular question at that moment was what music he listened to.

"Dubstep. You heard of that?"

"Dubstep? Sounds terrible."

Mac nodded slightly and carried on. "Well, some of it is...you guys must not have found out about it yet."

"What does it go like?"

Mac was stuck, but he felt like being silly, and tried his best to imitate the metallic beats.

"Kind of... Like... WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP WHOMP, BAWAWAWAWAWAW DU-"

Mac was interrupted by the crashing noise of back back door being headbutted open right behind him, producing a noise similar to the one he was trying to copy.

"What the...?"

Latios started squealing through the doorframe, unable to fit through the door but determined to get at least Katie to her stricken Pokemon. She'd be able to take her to the Pokemon Center.

"BIANCA! KATIE! ABSOL IN TROUBLE! SHE'S FALLEN ASLEEP AND WONT GET UP! HELP! SHE NEEDS THE HEALING MACHINE! HER PUPS ARE CRYING AND EVERYTHING! HELP!"

Mac covered his ears as Latios continued to shout, getting more and more agitated. Bianca read his body language and knew something was up.

He was moving his wings up and down more than he usually did, and his eyes were darting around the room. Whether they were in danger, or someone else was, the message was easy enough when you knew how to read it. 'Follow Me'.

Meanwhile, Latias was struggling with the escaping pups. Each pup was running in a different direction, but after a certain distance each one would fall over, turn around, run back and try and feed off Absol, and then run away again when it saw Latias chasing its siblings. The situation would have been funny if it wasn't so serious.

Latias changed tactics and flew away from Absol, before hiding against the ground. It was a rubbish disguise, but it worked. One by one, the pups turned around and started to try and feed off Absol again, crying when they found they couldn't.

Latias stayed still in order to stop the pups noticing her. The additional pup that Latias had been cleaning hadn't even moved during the episode. It was pushed up against the fur underneath Absol's chin, clearly cold and given up on any attempt to get any milk. Between Absol and Latias was the Electrike, with its four puncture wounds. Latias wanted to feed the pup really badly, but if she moved now she might cause the pups to try running off again. The other pup looked so desperate, though, that compassion won out and she flew towards the ex-electric type. The pups didn't seem to notice. They would once the smell of meat got to them.

Just as Latias was about the rip the Electrike skin open, she realised that, by releasing the smell of meat, she would advertise the fact that there was a predator in the area, and the pups would be more likely to run away. Then again, they might not know that rule at their young age.

Latias chanced it again and crunched down on the kill. There was a splurt of blood, and the scent went everywhere, but Latias resisted the temptation to eat it, instead lowering it down infront of Absol on the off chance it would wake her.

It didn't, but the pup that hadn't been able to get any milk lifted its head in the direction of the scent, and started to take shaky steps towards it, tail still between hind legs. Eventually, it reached the side of the split-open Electrike, and started licking it, sampling if it was edible. Satisfied, it proceeded to take miniature chunks out from the Pokemon, it's newly developed teeth shredding the meat on contact. Latias felt its aura shift to a happier state, it's small mind forgetting its mother's unresponsiveness and releasing endorphins in response to the nutrition.

The other pups noticed the existence of the meat when the seventh pup gave out an instinctive yip, which also told the rest of the pups that it'd found food.

Latias put he yip down to pack behaviour, but it created another problem. While the pups that were at Absol didn't understand speech yet, they knew what the yip meant. In seconds, the pups had abandoned Absol and were scrapping over a space next to the Electrike. The first pup was trampled in the process, too weak to maintain its place next to the food. It yipped as it was shunned to the back of the eating queue

Latias realized the current feeding system wasn't fair, and decided to split the meat up into seven equal pieces, then give each pup its own piece.

This was easier said than done. The moment she flew near, most of the pups whimpered back to Absol. Two remained, lying low on their paws, tails raised and looking ready to pounce, not pleased with the larger Pokemon apparently trying to take their food. They hadn't developed claws yet, and Latias doubted their jumping ability, but their teeth certainly looked sharp. Easily able to damage her eyes. Latias settled for growling a little bit at the pups, they wouldn't understand her if she spoke. The growl sent the two newborns scampering away with the others.

Free of the pups, but keeping an eye on them, Latias bit the Electrike into seven somewhat equal pieces of collected fat, muscle and bone, before lining the pieces up so they were about a foot apart. Then she flew back and waited for the pups to get the food.

About ten seconds passed, and although all the pups were peeking at the food, none were taking it, still worried about the large dragon that had arranged and then apparently forgotten to eat its meal.

In the end, hunger won out, and a single pup crawled to the closest piece of meat, and took a few bites, then made the yipping noise the other pup had made. The rest of the group ran forward, all towards the same piece. There was a bit of growling and scrapping, but once they realized that other pieces existed, all of the pups ran to a piece not occupied by another pup. Soon all seven pups were chewing away, a few making noises like Latias did when she ate.

Now the pups were occupied, Latias could take a closer look at Absol. She was working on the basis that the pups were essentially stupid and would - now distracted with food - not notice her trying to resuscitate their mother.

Before she could do that, though, Latios came squealing back, closely followed by Bianca, then Mac, then Katie. Lorenzo was still making his way.

Katie blinked at Latios.

"I don't get it. You've fed the pups?"

Latios shook his head and flew over to Absol, before shouting in her ear, to no response.

Katie narrowed her eyes. "I'm sorry, I don't... she's just tired?"

Latios rolled his eyes, and, before anyone could stop him, lifted up one of the pups, before placing it back down, facing it's mother's underside. The pup instantly tried suckling without success, and started crying until Latios flew it back to the meat Latias had set out, which it started to eat without complaint.

"The pup's aren't thirsty?"

Latias lost it and yelled at the humans psychicly.

"NO! They've drank her dry and she's starved! In a coma! She needs taking to the Pokemon Center!"

The humans stood still while the psychic voice sunk in.

"NOW!"

Mac - surprisingly - acted first, taking a step towards Absol and shouting at the others.

"Well? Don't just stand there! It's in a COMA!"

As he started to kneel down at Absol's side to do the completely unnecessary duty of checking her pulse, Katie responded next, fumbling for Absol's Poke Ball. Bianca stayed still, thinking. She stopped Katie seconds before she activated the ball.

"STOP! What about her pups? If you put her in the ball they'll be all confused. they could get lost!"  
"Can't Latias look after them?"  
"All respect Katie, no. I'm pretty sure Absol babies is one of the things they'd like to eat."

Latias heard this and flew up to Bianca as Latios watched over Mac.

"I can look after them! I don't want to eat them! They're sooooo cute!"

Meanwhile, Mac had found Absol's pulse at the side of her neck. He was working on the assumption that her normal pulse would be the same as a dog, which was around 120 beats every minute. Absol's was clocking in at about 60.

"Bianca!" was about as far as he got.

The loud shout had startled the closest pup, which turned around to see an apparently diminutive human with a hand on it's mother's neck. It didn't want to attack the dragon it had seen earlier, but this human looked a lot smaller.

The pup pounced, falling short of Mac's arm and ending up on his leg instead. Mac looked down just in time to see the pup yelp and sink its teeth into his thigh, much to Katie's horror.

The yelp alerted the rest of the puppies to the threat, and they too tried attacking Mac, spurred on by the brevity of its peer. In seconds he had 6 pups all attached to his legs by their teeth. None of them had developed claws yet, but the teeth were razor sharp and many of the pups were biting him multiple times.

"Ow...ah ah! OWWWWW! SHHHHHIIIIII... Someone! Ah! Do something! AHHH! Help! Ow...ow ow ow ow ow!" It wasn't a full on screaming fit, but the tiny teeth were giving him the sensation of being stung by a bee, multiple times.

"MAC! STAND UP!" Bianca shouted at him, correctly guessing that they were only attacking him because he was kneeling down. Once he stood up, she reasoned, the pups would chicken out of attacking the bigger enemy and go back to their mother.

Mac managed and the pups fell off him, a few landing on their paws but the majority landing on their rumps and backs. Luckily, they had evolved to survive falling down mountains, and were unhurt.

"This is more trouble than it needs to be. Latias, stop the pups running away." Katie ordered, pointing the Pokéball at Absol and pressing the button on the front. A red beam cast out of it and engulfed Absol, then retreated, Absol no longer there.

Mac was completely bewildered, partly by the pain of all the tiny bites in his leg, but also by the fact that Absol had just been sucked into something that seemed way to small to actually contain her.

"Bianca? Look after the pups with those two. I'll take Absol to the Pokemon Center. Bye!"

Bianca didn't bother arguing further, even though she wanted to. Absol was Katie's Pokemon after all, and anyway, Katie was already running to the house, giving her no choice.

As Mac stood and stuttered, Latias and Latios tried to deal with the pups, picking each one up by the scruff and placing it next to the pieces of Electrike, which they obediently started to chew down on, oblivious to the large dragon that had put them in that situation. A few of them had made the links that if they saw the large red dragon, it meant food.

Satisfied that the pups were under control, Latios flew over to Mac, who looked shocked.

"Did you see that? The...the... The snow leopard thing just...'disappeared'. That's what that ball thing does? But it's smaller than...?"

Latios was more concerned about his legs. Mac was wearing jeans, but they'd developed holes where the pups had bitten. Each wound was small and probably wouldn't result in much lost blood, but there were a lot of them. It was a good thing that Absols didn't make poison.

Latios set about trying to fix Mac up, copying what Latias did when she treated one of his or Bianca's wounds.

Latios rubbed his head against Mac's leg, sniffing for the smell of blood that would indicate a wound. When he found one, he gave it small licks.

Unknown to Latios, this worked because the saliva made by both dragons contained a congealing agent similar to the platelets in human blood, meaning the break in the skin would scab and heal over quicker than if he hadn't.

Mac snapped out of it and looked down when he felt something brushing his leg, and was surprised to see Latios licking his trouser. Bianca saw the shocked look on his face and explained.

"Don't lash out. He's done this to me before. He's just cleaning up those bites. He's done it with me before, it's a good thing."

Mac followed Bianca's instructions and stood still as she explained her incorrect hypothesis a bit more.

"Their saliva is antiseptic, did you know that? It means you'll heal quicker. He's treating you like he would his babies. You should really be thanking him."

Latios strafed backwards away from Mac, wounds cleaned. He wasn't sure how effective it would be since he was cleaning it through his trousers, but it was better than nothing. He started to fly towards Latias, but Mac called him back.

"Latios?" Mac asked, making the Eon wheel around and fly up to Mac's level.

"Yep?"

Mac nervously reached for Latios' ears, planning on copying the way that Bianca praised him and scratching behind his ears.

"Errrr...thanks?"

Latios tilted his head and Mac decided it was safe, copying the way Bianca rubbed behind his ears. Latios responded by closing his eyes and making a relived coo. Mac gave him a few more seconds, then indicated Latias.

"You should probably help her now."

Latios turned around and flew to Latias in agreement. She looked like she had the situation under control. It seemed like most of the pups now associated her with being fed, not being eaten. They were pups, Latias remembered. Food and milk was all it took for them to gain trust in a predator. Latios noticed this as a possible new hunting technique, though in practicality it would require catching another Pokemon just to lure a smaller infant Pokemon. Not really worth the trouble. It was much easier just to go for the eggs.


	5. Chapter 5

_Sorry for the late update, I had yet another publication block while I met David Cameron (UK Prime Minister). He's okay I guess. I stockpiled the chapter though, so set aside some time, it's longer than normal :)_

Brother just watched Pokemon B&W. I saw it too. Didn't like it. Had revenge in this chapter. Stupid F**king Iris with her stupid f**king arrogant little micro dragon axew thing. GEN 3 4EVA!1!1!

I'm kidding, all gens are equal...

Still don't like Axew though. This chapter, therefore, is not suitable for axew fans.

* * *

Both dragons were laid down opposite the pups trying to look as flat as possible, wings low and heads pressed to the grass.

Mac and Bianca were stood behind them.

"Why are they doing that?" Mac asked.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. They do that when they're trying to hide, but it's not a very good disguise, is it?"

In fact, it was a terrible disguise. The grass was irritating Latias' snout. Her nostrils weren't visible because they were hidden by her feathers, but a blade of grass had still managed to tickle them. Without warning, she lifted her head up away from the ground and sneezed.

Mac dove to the ground in surprise. He wasn't a jumpy person, but recent events had given him the overzealous reaction. It was partly justified though. Most of Latias' sneeze was just noise, but for one reason or another, there was a bit of fire in there as well, and a flame quickly jetted outwards from her mouth as well.

Bianca laughed at Mac's expense.

"Mac, Cool it! She just sneezed."

Mac gave her an incredulous look.

"Sneezed fire?"

"Well, yeah. They are dragons after all. What do you expect?"

"A little advanced warning." Mac grumbled as he stood himself back up.

Latias went back to watching the pups. A few of them were getting close to finishing their meat, and she wasn't sure what to do once they did. Would they run away and try and find Absol? Or did they trust her enough not to?

"Latios, get them something else." She murmured to him, keeping her snout on the ground the entire time.

"Sure."

He stayed still though, and Latias frowned.

"Are you going to go and get something then or-"

She was cut off by Latios holding his head in the air and making a nose unlike any other normal coo. Latias recognised it, it took Bianca a few seconds but - yet again - Mac was clueless.

"What's he doing?"

Bianca 'ummed' before answering.

"Don't quote me, but I think he's imitating another Pokemon mating call."

"Oh. Why would he want to do that?"

Bianca shot Mac a look that said he should have at least figured that out.

"He's going to lure another Pokemon closer and then catch it. Now quiet and watch." She put her finger to her lips to reiterate, and Mac stayed silent.

Sure enough, a Wingull started to circle overhead. Mac watched Latios as it went into his eyesight. He lifted his rear, moved his wings around and his eyes narrowed as he moved his head around, judging the best angle. The wingull started cawing back.

"Hello? Did someone want a mate? I'm here! This isn't a wind up, right?"

Latios waited until the gull had decided it was a wind up and started flying away. Back turned, it would never see him coming.

Latios set off like a rocket, startling Mac for the third time in as many minutes. The Wingull heard the gust caused by Latios setting off, and turned about, thinking that there was a mate after all. Instead, he saw the front of Latios' snout.

"Ah! Apapapa!" Was as far as he got before Latios was on him. Luckily, the bird's brain was weak, and by the second shake it was already just a puddle of gray matter in its skull.

Instead of flying right to back to Latias, Latios flew to Bianca and showed off the kill, shoving the barely wounded corpse in her face. She turned away.

"Look! Look Bianca! I lured it in by myself, did you see? You were looking! He fell for it!"

"Fantastic..." She mumbled sarcastically, much to his disappointment. It was, after all, pretty clever the way he copied a different Wingull.

"You weren't looking! It was clever!"

Bianca just held her face away.

"Yes, wonderful. Now get it out of my face."

Latios looked put down before turning to face Mac, who looked a tad more impressed.

Mac was nicer than Bianca. "Well done, Latios. That was quite intelligent the way you lured it in like that."

Latios cheered and flew to a smiling Latias, lying down next to her ready to try again. He spat the kill out infront, intending to make a pile. It didn't matter how many wingull he killed. There was always plenty.

"I'm going to ca-"

"WHATTHEHELLISTHAT!?" Latias' expression changed from happy to alarmed, and she squealed, snout pointing at a small dark green Pokemon that had just moved in the bushes at the corner of the garden.

Latios looked, and he wasn't sure. There were new Pokemon appearing in Alto Mare every day. They would find their way into ships on the mainland, then find a way out when they arrived in Alto Mare. Not on purpose, most of them did it by accident. But all it took was there to be a male and a female of the same species, and the species could soon populate the town.

"I don't know, I haven't seen one before."

"It looks scary." Latias was referencing the tusks on the side of its mouth.

It was about Cubone's shoulder height, mostly dark green, with a short stubby tail. It's eyes were far apart on the side of it's head and it didn't have a snout, so Latios took a guess at it being prey. Either side of it's mouth were two protrusions, they looked kind of like tusks. The most prominent feature was the large flat point it had coming from the back of its head.

"I don't know. It could be poisonous." Latios murmured. Dark green, he had learnt, often meant poisonous. Not always, but often.

The Axew was on all fours, sniffing for possible food. It had smelt the baby Absols, but their mother didn't seem to be around. More importantly, the mother must have left some food, because he could smell meat. It would be a small task just to scavenge a meal from that. After all, they were pups. If they put up a fight for their food he could easily beat them. And if they happened to loose that fight, well...meat is meat.

Bianca noticed Latios and Latias both hunker down lower into the ground and looking directly into the bushes over the pups, like they sensed a threat in them.

"It's getting closer. Latios?" Latias whispered.  
"I know...I'm just waiting until it's not looking"

The Axew was on all fours and looking down, but it's head was pointed towards the scent of the food, also at Latios and Latias. It didn't look much, but there wasn't telling how quickly it could move, or if it had a bolt hole to suddenly disappear through. If Latios flew now, the thing could catch him in the corner of it's eye and escape. Slim, but still a chance.

Bianca knew something was up just by the way Latias was lying down, intently focused on the bushes. She couldn't see anything in them, but she was at a higher angle than her. She nudged Mac and whispered, not wanting him to over-react again.

"Be prepared. Latios is going to pounce."  
"Pounce? What, is he g-"

In a flurry of feathers, Latios pounced on the Axew.

Latios was confused at how to grab it. He didn't want to go for it's head because of that large horn thing that could be poisonous. Biting it on it's front wasn't an option either, even if it was belly-up it could still bite him back. It's back, though, seemed fine as long as it's tail wasn't dangerous. Latios chose that.

In a flash he had it in his mouth, and judging by the taste, it wasn't anything special. Not a grass type, unlikely to be poisonous. Instead of killing it there and then, he took it back to Latias, the Axew squealing as he did.

"Look, Latias! Not poisonous!"

Latias laughed, a thought creeping into her mind.

"Oh! Put it down! Put it down!"

Latios knew what she was going to do and dropped the minute Pokemon, which ran away from him sporting four holes in it's back. In its effort to escape on all fours, it ran into Latias. She chose her moment, then took a paw and batted it back to Latios, giggling at the way the tiny body flew right back into its original situation. Latios caught it in his mouth, then threw it back to Latias, tossing it with his neck. Latias caught it, and soon a game of catch had developed, to Bianca's obvious distaste.

"YOU TWO! EITHER KILL IT OR LET IT GO!"

Mac gave her a puzzled look, and Bianca passed him off.

"I don't mind if they kill it off the bat, or if they don't hurt it and let it go, but when they play with it while it's still living...not nice. YOU TWO! KILL IT. NOW!"

Latias carried on ignoring her and caught the Axew again, by which time it had received multiple gashes in its skin that were leaking blood. It was still squealing.

"Latios! What about the pups!"

"What about them?"

"This thing's weak. Why don't we leave it for them to finish? Teach them?"

Latios thought over it. Teaching the pups to hunt would be the males job, and since Absol didn't have her mate with her, no one would teach the pups. Unless he did. Besides, they were starting to finish their Electrike.

"Sure. Pass it here!"

Latias threw the Axew for the final time and Latios let it land infront of him with a thump, then rolled it with the point of his snout towards the pups. The Axew wasn't even capable of standing up, much less fighting back. Bianca was fit to explode.

"Latias! That was cruel! Put it out of it's misery now! Latios! Do as I say or I'll..."

Bianca fumbled for the dragon's training whistle, but her pockets were empty bar her phone. She'd left it on the side at the house.

Latios rolled the stricken Pokemon towards Absol's pups, stopping it a foot short, reasoning that the smell of blood would attract them.

The pups that had finished started to sniff the ground for Latias scent, slowly making their way towards her, associating her with the thing that left food arranged on the ground. Latios chose the closest pup and picked it up in his mouth, flying it over to the Axew, gently depositing it facing it. The pup took a cautious sniff as the Axew whimpered, immobile. It didn't take a bite though.

Latios tried again with another pup, this time choosing one he knew was male, since they were more likely to want to finish off a kill. He picked up the wandering pup and placed this one right next to the dying Axew. He too sniffed it, but did nothing.

Latias shouted to him as she glared at the remaining pups to make sure they didn't escape.

"Show them it's edible! Take a bit for yourself and they'll copy!"

Nothing else for it, Latios tore a bit of the Axew away, pulling and biting at an arm, growling at the same time. The growl startled the pups, but after they realized that it wasn't aimed at them they looked on inquisitively.

Eventually, the limb came clear and Latios crunched it twice before swallowing. He'd now attracted most of the pups attentions. Instead of running away, their little brains had made the connection that this dragon wouldn't eat them, and at the opposite, seemed to be showing them food.

The male that Latios had originally picked up looked back at the Axew, then Latios. Latios made a positive sound, and the pup yipped. Neither communication was a particular sentence or even a word, but the pup got the idea, and it copied Latios as best as it could, biting away at the closest bit of the Axew to it, it's belly. The Axew was paralyzed, spine broken and almost brain dead.

Bianca had stopped shouting, partly given up but also because she realised that the dragons were now trying to do good by teaching the pups to hunt. She didn't think that was their original plan, but at least they'd made use of what they'd done.

The male pup had decided that the Axew was edible and yipped to the rest of its siblings, who joined in with it, taking cautious bites out of it. Latios looked over them while they ate, making sure that the Axew didn't have any tricks up it sleeve.

At one point, two nerves shorted on the Axew and it's foot twitched, which made the Absol chewing on said limb jump backwards in surprise and stay back, looking with concern at the leg. Latios flew over and showed the Absol what to do, growling at the Axew, grabbing the offending leg before tightly grabbing and shaking it until it was next to useless. The Absol saw this and yipped. It sounded like a "Get off my food" kind of yip, so Latios flew back up and the Absol rejoined its siblings in tearing the Axew apart.

Mac looked on somewhat sickened.

"Bianca?"

"Yes Mac?"

"Are Absol pack animals?"

"Pack Pokemon, yeah. They normally live on mountains where it's snowy, but Absol was caught and came back here with Katie's father. Why?"

Mac was still looking at the flurry of fur that was the mini-Absols fighting over the slightly larger Pokemon, and felt a blast of relief for it as it'd stopped moving entirely. Still disturbing, the thing had been partially eaten alive.

"They seem a bit...untame."

"Wild?"

"Yeah."

"Well they are. Latios and Latias are too. I try and tell them not to be so sadistic and play games with the Pokemon they plan on eating, but it's in their playful nature, I suppose. And I'd forgotten their whistle."

"Whistle?"

"I'll show you when we get back. It makes a really high-pitched noise that only they can hear. But they don't like it, so if they ever misbehave I use it to get them to listen to me."

"Oh. Do they misbehave often?"

"Latios, no. Latias always manages to get herself into trouble. A few years ago she snook into the TV studio and started harassing the weather man while he was doing the weather. She was invisible, so no one could see who the guy was shouting back at."

Mac chuckled and Bianca frowned at him for it.

"Not funny. The poor guy quit after that."

Mac was still smiling.

"Oh, I'm sorry Mrs. goody two shoes. At least Latias' got a sense of humour. Have they ever hurt a person for no reason?" He asked, adding the 'for no reason' at the end because Latias had killed someone two days before.

Bianca proudly shook her head.

"Only mentally, bar the odd accidental scratch. It takes a lot to provoke them, like, actually hurting them. Like..." She tried to think of an example.

"I know when to draw the line because I've known them a while. When we're washing them, we sometimes trap their feathers, and that hurts them. But Latias is more peaceful than Latios, so we can wash Latios around Latias, even though he yelps a bit. But not the other way around, because he gets very protective. When he starts growling, that's when you stop whatever it is you're doing. Latias'll growl a lot, but it doesn't mean anything. When she shows you her teeth, that's when she's thinking of hurting you. So there's always a reason, it's just what you set the bar at."

Mac hummed.

"So, say you hit Latias to discipline her. Wouldn't Latios-"

"No. Well, he gets angry, obviously. But not violent. Now, If YOU did it, he'd probably hit you back. Nothing personal, it's just he's grown up around me telling them what's right and wrong. But in his eyes, if another male hits one of his family, that's an attempt to take over control from him, and he wouldn't have that."

Mac snorted, but Bianca was on a roll now, and carried on talking.

"Which is also why you should NEVER touch any of Latias' features without him letting you know you can. He'll think you're trying to steal her off him."

"What do you mean by features?"

"Things that he thinks are attractive, or good mate qualities. So...he likes her flippers, don't touch those. I'm pretty sure he's fond of her claws too. Make that the whole paw, not just the claws. Obviously the wings."

Mac couldn't help a sarcastic comment. "Obviously, duh. What thick person would think that was acceptable?"

Bianca grinned.

"You said it, not me. Her neck, I think he likes that. Don't grab her ears either, he likes those. Especially don't touch those little triangles at the end of her wings. They're delicate, so she'll kick up a fuss, and Latios likes them. Her underside too. That's a vulnerability and he might think you've tried attacking her."

Mac interrupted again.

"What you're saying is, don't touch Latias unless Latios says so. I get it. How do you know what he likes, though? Has he told you? You could be making all this up for all I know."

Bianca shook her head.

"No, I know this kind of thing because, One, Latias tells me. And two, It's all in Latios' body language."

"SHE tells you what LATIOS likes?"

"Not directly. But when I'm giving her a wash, or she's washing herself and I'm around, she'll ask me if her flippers look nice. Remember the four F thing? Well Latias isn't going to ask me if her flippers look nice for food, fighting or fleeing, so they're probably to find a mate, which in this case means Latios liking how they look."

"Ah. It's cool how you can work all this stuff out."

"I've known them a long time. And it's basic human psychology, just adapted for their world."

"Cool."

The pair watched as the Eons watched the puppies nibble away at the now thankfully deceased Axew, when a voice spoke up behind them. Lorenzo.

"You two!"

Both humans and dragons snapped around to look at Lorenzo, who dismissed the latter with a wave of the hand.

He'd been stood a few yards away since Katie had ran off, watching how Mac behaved when he thought he wasn't around. Lorenzo had expected him to make a move or something - he would have done at Mac's age - but he hadn't. Which was reassuring from the grandad's point of view.

"Bianca, Mac. I think I can look after things here. Do you want to take the boat and teach Mac how to use it?"

Bianca hesitated. Did Lorenzo just suggest she and Mac did something on their own?

"Are you sure? I mean, the pups, and...what if they run off? No offense, gramps, but you're not up to catching them."

Lorenzo just laughed. "I've got those two," - he pointed to the dragons - "If they try and give the slip. Besides, Mac's seen these two plenty. He's not been around the town yet or anything. Don't worry about me. Be back in about two hours though, okay?"

Bianca didn't need any more encouraging, and grabbed Mac by the arm.

Fifteen minutes later, Mac was stood at the edge of the canal, wearing as many buoyancy aids as possible, much to Bianca's amusement.

"Is it actually possible for you to wear anything else that floats?" She asked, only half joking. Mac was wearing a life jacket, floatation belt, foam arm and leg bands, and had switched into sandals, reasoning that they wouldn't drag him down should he fall in. Bianca was wearing a single life jacket.

"I'm just saying, I'd rather wear this than risk drowning."

"Right. Because humans don't naturally float?" She retorted sarcastically, reaching for and untangling a tow line next to her float.

"Yeah well...what are you doing?" It was a good question. Bianca had just stabbed a blue Pokeblock through a small hook on the end of the tow line and was dangling it in the water.

"I'm going to be on the float, getting pulled next to you so I don't upset your balance. I'm just getting a Pokemon to pull me."

Bianca had barely finished the sentence when a Mudkip paddled up to the submerged line, before diving down to get the block. Bianca responded by bringing it closer to her, until the block was bobbing on the surface of the water, within her reach, with the Mudkip chasing after it.

"Perfect" Bianca mumbled to herself as the Mudkip got in range of her arms. She quickly but gently leaned forward and picked up the water type, placing it on the deck as Mac watched her technique. The Mudkip was looking up at her almost the entire time.

"Hello, friend. Are you hungry?" She held out a selection of Pokeblock, and the Mudkip started pacing towards the hand with the food in. She closed her hand and hid it from the Pokemon's view, replacing it with a harness.

"First, you've got to do me a favour, okay?"

The Mudkip made a whining noise and went for the Pokeblocks that Bianca was hiding behind her back regardless.

"Okay, one. But then I put you in the harness. We won't be long?"

She dropped a water type Pokeblock on deck, and the Mudkip happily started gobbling it down. While it did that, Bianca took the harness from the tow line and strapped it around the Pokemon. The Mudkip didn't seem to care, but Mac looked on somewhat shocked.

"Wait, so...that isn't your Pokemon? Who's is it?"

"No one's. It's wild."

"So how do you know it's going to listen to you?"

Bianca grinned. "Because I'm the one with the food."

Mac frowned. "That's just slavery. You can't just have it work for food."

"Well...I am. Anyway, he'll listen to me. Mudkip are reliable. Most of the time."

She patted the Mudkip as she said the last bit, judging how much it liked human contact. The Mudkip didn't seem to care.

"But, don't you have your own Pokemon to pull you?"

"I've got Latios and Latias, but we can't ask them during the day, obviously. Cubone can't swim, or at least, I don't think he'll be able to. I don't have any caught Pokemon any more. I used to, but I think they were jealous of the twins because they were wild."

"Right. I still think you should have given this one a choice."

The Mudkip had finished its micro-meal and Bianca had already picked it up in her hands. For a wild Pokemon, it seemed comfortable with being picked up, and it stayed still as Bianca put it back in the water, tow rope attached. The moment it's paws touched the water, it started paddling, but it stopped once it reached the end of the tether.

"Okay, Mac, you ready? Think you're going to float?" She sniggered at his multiple buoyancy aids.

"Yep, I think so."

Bianca's float, Lorenzo's boat and Mac's smaller craft were the only craft tied up, and Bianca hopped onto her float with practised ease. Mac stood wearily at the edge, looking at his boat. It looked very unstable.

"Excellent. So, lesson one, getting in the boat..."

* * *

"Look, Lorenzo! Look!"

Pups fed, Latias was laying on the grass with her neck twisted around the Absol pup pack, which had all decided to fall asleep at pretty much the same time. Latios had tried playing with them, but the pups had just stood there, not exactly sure how to 'play' with the large blue dragon. So instead, he settled with watching Latias care for them.

She was doing a good job of it as well. Each and every pup was asleep and protected - but not covered - by her, despite the fact that common sense should have made the pups run away from the predator.

"Latias?"

"Yeah?" she responded in a whisper to prevent startling the pups.

"Why aren't you covering them up?" It was concerning Latios. When they had kids, he wanted Latias to help protect them too.

"They're too warm, they've got loads of fur and they need to be kept cool."

It was a good reason, and Latios smiled at it. That was Latias, always thinking when it mattered. When it didn't, she didn't, and that often led to crazy results, but Latios felt a blast of pride for his mate when he heard that.

Lorenzo had kept an eye on the dragons the entire time. As much as he unconditionally trusted them, he wouldn't put it past Latios to try snacking on one, or Latias loosing her temper and hitting one of them. But that hadn't happened, and now the pups were asleep, things had died down. Katie would be an hour while they healed Absol, two hours, tops. One thing was sure, Latias wouldn't let him know the end of it for ages when they got home.

Katie ran the entire way that wasn't by the jet ski she'd got just for emergencies, Absol's Poke Ball jangling on her belt as she ran. The Poke Balls were supposed to hold the Pokemon in suspended animation, so in theory Absol's condition shouldn't worsen. In practice, it just wouldn't seem right to walk to the center when her friend's life was in the balance. At any rate, the ball didn't fully suspend the occupant, only reduced it's passage in time by a factor of 10. So though it took her six minutes to make it to the center, Absol only experienced 36 seconds.

She ran through the automatic doors and almost threw the Poke Ball at the nurse, she was running that hard. The nurse took it all in her stride, though, and took the ball from Katie, putting it into a machine and handing her a form to fill in.

The forms were a relatively new thing. You didn't need to fill them in, but if you didn't it was assumed that you were hiding something. It wasn't like it was a strenuous form either. It was just a simple set of questions, asking who you were, what the Pokemon was and why it needed healing. Bianca looked, but there didn't seem to be anything for her to circle on the last question. Obviously, Absol's coma was as a result of her pups, and while 'pregnancy' was an option on the form, Absol wasn't technically pregnant at the time.

As Katie mulled it over, a boy and a Blaziken walked in to the center, with Officer Jenny behind them, clearly escorting them. The boy waited until they were in the middle of the center's modest reception before stopping, turning around, and having a go at the officer, deliberately making sure everyone in the room could hear.

"You can't arrest me just for having a certain Pokemon! That's racist! "

Bianca choked back a laugh as officer jenny sighed.

"You're not BEING arrested, you're getting a caution for having a fire type in a restricted area, which is common sense, not racism."

"Restricted area? I was at the port!"

"...which is a no-fire-type area. There's petrol fumes and all sorts out there, and - no offense," She glanced at the Blaziken, who looking around the reception and wasn't paying attention anyway, "but you took something with fire coming out of it's wrists right next to a fuel tank. You could've killed someone!"

The Blaziken was the tallest living being in the room, and there wasn't much room for it to even stand up. Coupled with the fact that it's owner was being told off by a police woman, Katie excused it for looking fidgety.

"You can't blame Blaze for that!"

"I'm not blaming this poor Pokemon, I'm blaming you, you're the one who should know better."

"Know better? HANDS UP EVERYONE WHO KNEW YOU WEREN'T ALLOWED A BLAZIKEN AT THE PORT?"

Katie knew it, as well as most of the waiting people and a few of the Pokemon. Officer jenny watched as every human raised their hand and tried not to look smug at the youth's backfired plan. It was blatantly obvious he was a tourist.

"Everyone knows. There's signs everywhere."

"But he's tame! He wouldn't have started anything!"

"Son, do me a favour? Hold Blaze's wrist in your hand."

"No, I'll burn myself!"

"Right. So he cant stop that flame?"

"What are you, thick? No Blaziken can!"

"Exactly. So if he can't stop that fire, why did you think it was okay to take him to a place that had flammable liquid lying around? It's for the same reason we don't let water types at the power plant."

The argument carried on in the background as Katie handed her form back to the nurse, who told her Absol would be about ten minutes.

Eventually the Blaziken got bored of the argument and started to walk towards the seating, where various owners and their Pokemon were waiting for booked appointments.

"BLAZE! BACK HERE!"

The Blaziken took a seat next to a Vaporeon sat obediently on a chair, and shook it's head. The Vaporeon stayed obediently sat still on the chair, though it nodded at the large fire type as he sat down.

"BLAZE! HERE! NOW!"

The tourist boy continued to shout and point at his foot, trying to get the Blaziken to obey, but the Pokemon stayed where it was, shaking his head. Officer Jenny interfered.

"Blaze? Is that your name?"

The Blaziken nodded, looking the officer in the eyes.

"You're not in trouble at all for this, it's your trainers fault, but if you don't listen to him while you're in a public place, you're going to have to go back in your ball. Do you understand?"

The Blaziken smirked and his trainer squirmed as he told Jenny.

"Er...Blaze doesn't have a ball. He doesn't like them."

"Doesn't have one, or won't go in one?"

"Doesn't have one." The boy looked at the floor. "He's actually my dad's. I...I took blaze with me on vacation without asking."

Officer Jenny exploded on the spot.

"THAT, YOUNG MAN, IS STEALING, AND I FOR ONE HOLD STEALING AT THE TOP OF MY LIST OF THINGS THAT SHOULD LAND PEOPLE IN PRISON!"

That said, she reached into her belt and before he could do anything, he had his hands handcuffed behind his back.

"But-"

"I don't care. Stealing is a crime. Walking off with someone else's Pokemon is worse than that! It's kidnapping, essentially! "

She looked at Blaze, who couldn't seem to care less, and quizzed him in a much calmer tone.

"Are you alright to stay here? The nurses will look after you?"

The Blaziken nodded and even barked a "Yessir".

Jenny resumed her stern voice and tugged at the boy's handcuffs.

"Thanks. NOW, Young Man, with me. We're calling your dad right away"

And she marched him off behind the reception desk, doffing her cap to the nurses as she did. All was quiet until a Clefairy waddled up to blaze and offered it a tray of treats. The Blaziken took a biscuit-like-thing in his claws and nodded a thanks to the Clefairy.

Eventually, Absol's ball was handed back to Katie, who hastily snatched it from the nurses hand and held it close to herself, closing her eyes and hugging the ball close to her chest. She looked up at the nurse and apologised for her grabby response.

"Oh, sorry! I was just excited to have her back."

The nurse smiled back.

"It's okay, we get that a lot. I prefer your kind to the ones who don't seem to care."

Katie gushed and started to throw the ball and let Absol out immediately, but the nurse pointed her away.

"Not just here, a line's forming. Go over there."

"Sorry!"

Bianca ran to where the nurse pointed and threw Absol's ball, calling her out at the same time.

"Absol, Come on out!"

A red beam of light splayed out of the ball, creating Absol's shape on the center's tiles, before being propelled back into Katie's hand. The light faded away and Absol materialised, shaking her head and ruffling her fur, facing away from Katie.

Katie ran up behind her, hoping to give her a hug, but the plan was ruined when Absol darted away, barking and attracting as much attention as possible.

"Pups! My pups! Got to get back to them!"

Absol ran for the door, making all present turn and frown at Katie for her lack of control. Katie didn't see that though, as she was chasing right after her.

Unfortunately for Absol, the automatic door wasn't quick to open, and she wasn't fully sure how it worked anyway. It opened halfway, but Absol ran head first into the frame with a thwack that made Katie wince.

"Absol be careful! Just slow down and-"

But it was too late. The door had opened fully and Absol had wasted no time in leaping out of the center and into the street outside. Once there, she shouted her pack cry and listened to the response.

In the mountains, whenever an Absol shouted anything, it had their pack's cry, followed by the name of the recipient. It wasn't actually a name, Pokemon rarely named themselves, it was more of a defining characteristic. When she was in the wild, her pack's cry was two short barks, a yip and a howl. Then her nickname was wide tail, for obvious reasons.

Even if the pups had heard her, they were only two days old, so they wouldn't have known the pack cry anyway. Absol's justification for shouting anyway was that no child could ignore it's mother's cry.

She waited and listened, poised on her hind legs, but there wasn't a response. This gave Katie time to catch up, and she did, doing the worst possible thing, grabbing hold of Absol's scruff to try and get her to calm down. It had the opposite effect.

Without thinking, Absol turned her head and bit Katie's hand, before leaping away in the direction she was facing, galloping down a random street, darting in, out and inbetween people's legs.

Katie had pulled her hand away the moment Absol had turned to bite her, but she still got bit anyway. It didn't hurt, yet, but her hand was covered with blood almost instantly. Absol had bit her before, and this wasn't the worst case, but she wasn't expecting it, and she was shocked into silence. A passer-by stopped and grabbed her shoulder.

"Are you okay there? Was that Pokemon yours? Yes? Come on, let's go into the center and get that hand cleaned up...gracious me! They sure are violent things, those Absol? Come on, let's get that hand sorted. Gracious me that's a lot of blood...don't show it to me, keep your other hand over it...there we go..."

The old lady continued making small talk as she took a shocked Katie back into the center.

Absol was confused. Confused, lost, hurt, and unable to find her pups. Which also stressed her. The knock on her nose when she had ran into the door had temporary removed her sense of smell, and while it would ordinarily be no big task to sniff out and retrace Katie's footsteps, her nose wasn't helping her this time, providing nothing other than a stinging sensation.

What also wasn't helping were the humans, who appeared to be out in full force. The majority were nothing more than obstacles, blocking paths, moving slowly and changing direction without warning, but a few went a step further and threw abuse and even the odd object at her.

"An Absol? BAD LUCK! SHOO! OUTTA HERE!"

"WATCH IT, stupid creature..."

"DON'T BRING YOUR DISASTERS TO ME! SCRAM!"

If she wasn't so panicked Absol would have stopped and given them a piece of her mind, before finding some way of informing them that Absol had never actually caused a disaster, just warned humans about them. She settled for growling at them, which made them get out of the way.

* * *

Pokeballs slow down the occupants passage through time because their mass stays the same (in accordance with the laws of thermodynamics) but it's area is drastically reduced, making it denser and so it will experience time slower than normal, due to Einstein's theories of relativity and linked energies. PHYSICS, F**K YEAH!


	6. Chapter 6

I'll be honest: I'm not sure if an absol would be like a cat or a dog. On one hand, they're like big cats. On the other hand, they stay in packs. On the other other hand, they... You know what? I'm treating them as both.

* * *

She was sure this was the right way. Sure of it. It had to be.

Absol had cut through to some less crowded backstreets, and while it had made easier going with less people, it was ten times more confusing. She kept running though, powering forwards with her rear paws and using her front paws to lightly support herself. Galloping was an art, Absol had learnt, and she wasn't very good at it. She looked more like she was hopping along rather than running, but it got her going quick, and it did that quickly.

She'd just reached full-pelt when she looked ahead and saw the footpath abruptly stop, then reappear again ten meters later. With dread, Absol realised she'd reached the main canal, and she couldn't jump it.

The canal itself wasnt ten meters wide, but the path Absol was on was at an extreme angle to it, meaning it was a diagonal jump accross the canal.

Absol dug her claws in and almost instantly stopped, claws digging into the cracks in the stone and bringing her to a halt a foot away from the edge. She looked down at the water and whined at the reflection that looked back.

She didn't like water. Really didn't. She'd only been in it three or four times, and each one was by accident and horrible. She'd fallen through some ice while walking with the pack, and the water had quickly soaked her fur, making her cold and a lot heavier than normal, which also made it difficult for her to swim. She could swim, of sorts. It wasn't swimming so much as random flailing, though.

* * *

_It had been a normal winter for the pack. There were eleven of them, ranging from the pack leader to Absol herself, who was low enough on the pride's agenda to be ignored. All, that was, bar one particularly annoying male from the litter before her that kept showing off to impress her._

_"Wide Tail! Look! Human Prints!"_

_It was considered a skill to be able to see and identify prints in the snow, and the male - which the pride called Rough Fur - was constantly showing it off. He was also showing off his ability to stand on his hind legs, a skill that Absol did find more appealing, but still not enough to actually find him worthy of notice. Especially when he wasnt very good at it._

_Absol had ignored him. He reeked, and it was obvious from the smell that he just wanted to mate with her, and she had better standards than THAT ball of sandpaper._

_The pack was doing a standard sort of thing: low on food and rising temperature had forced them to move downhill to where more plants and pokemon were. It was warmer down the mountain, but the pack leader had insisted, fighting those who opposed in order to get his own way. And being the pack leader, he was also the strongest._

_Which was why the pack was now carefully treading it's way across an ice sheet. They'd have galloped, but the ice was too thin for them to use their claws, a fact none of them liked._

_"Pack Leader! I do not like this!"_

_A pregnant Absol had shouted to him, but he'd carried on, showing little affection._

_"You should be more powerful and choose wiser in the future..."_

_The pregnant Absol had barred her teeth and slowed down after that. As much as the pride were largly uncaring for individuals - if Absol was male, she could have sat down and napped and the pack would carry right on and abandoned her - they still valued mated females, or even prospective mates. They would bare the pups that kept the pride going. And so the march slowed down even more._

_The fact of the matter was, if they extended their claws to get more grip, they would crack and weaken the ice, then fall through it. So instead they had to retract the 3 hard, solid, nail-like claws that they had, and instead balance precariously on the softer pads of their paws, and try not to slip, an art which younger Absol - such as herself - couldn't manage._

_Absol yelped as her front paw lost traction and she fell face-first onto the ice. Rough Fur was instantly there._

_"Wide Tail, are you okay?"_

_Absol grunted as she pushed her paws back up and stood again. Another thing that irritated her was her nickname. 'Wide Tail'. Was it an insult, or a compliment? She growled back._

_"Yes, Rough Fur, now move on."_

_"Wide Tail, are you unhappy?"_

_"No, Rough Fur, I often growl when I'm happy."_

_Absols didn't actually have a sense of sarcasm by default, and Rough Fur seemed pleased, prancing with his front paws as they resumed walking. Another skill that he thought looked attractive but that Absol actually found ridiculous. Like he had been trained to do it by a human._

_"Then, Wide Tail, all is good! Are you feeling good?"_

_It was obvious that by "Feeling Good" he actually meant "In the Mood *winky face*". Absol knew where this was going, gave up, and barked at him there and then, turning the heads of the entire march, also bringing it to a halt._

_"Rough Fur, I do NOT want to mate with you, not now, not at the end of the march, not at the coming of winter, not when we return home, not ever! Desist!"_

_Rough Fur grinned like he liked what he was hearing._

_"Then fight me!" It was normally the tradition that the male would fight all the other males for the mate, but they were all uninterested in the female from the year before's litter, and the only response from them was the pregnant Absol, which took the opportunity to lay down for a rest._

_Absol was glad to oblige to the weaker males challenge, and dug her claws into the ice for more grip, intending to leap towards the prospect. But she didn't get to that stage._

_The moment she dug her claws in, there was a snapping noise like steel, followed by a wobbling as the ice cracked, split and shifted. The noise sent the pride leaping instinctively to their feet and away from the noise._

_It was too late for Absol, though. She too had tried leaping away, but instead of pushing herself away, her rear paws pushed the ice from underneath her, and she went down with it, falling into the frigid water a foot below. The water underneath the ice was barely a degree above freezing, and Absol yelped the moment it touched her fur. True, she prided her fur and was devastated by it getting wet, but fifty times worse was the pain. Like her paw had just been stabbed with icicles. Absol howled as the rest of her went in too._

_The pride had just stood and watched in dismay. They'd all seen it before. Some had been in the water before in a similar fashion. Mother's bathed their new-borns in small hot pools at birth, so some could still swim, but after a few weeks most Absol became hydrophobic and treated pools of water with the same regard as pools of lava. Those that couldn't swim, or didn't because of the shock of falling in, met their end this way. There was nothing any of them could do, though. The ice was too thick to perform an effective rescue. No one really liked her that much anyway, bar Rough Fur, who barked at her in panic._

_"Move, Wide Tail! Move! Don't stay still!"_

_Absol was struggling to stay afloat, splashing overriding any shouts from her pack. Her fur had absorbed the water like a sponge and she easily weighed twice more than normal. The only thing keeping her floating was the frantic movement of her legs. Stop, and she'd sink like a stone._

_She was so horrified, time had stretched out as her mind sped up to deal with the crisis. The edge of the ice was so far away, and the water, so cold it killed her, relentlessly pulling her down, ruining her coat, stabbing pains on every single patch of-_

* * *

Absol whined again and crawled back away from the canal edge and it's deep water. No way was she going in. No. Not in a million years. Nothing was worth it, nothing was worth feeling that feeling, ever again.

But, her pups. They needed her. She'd left them with two greedy dragons. Dragons! Practically their predators! What she was thinking even letting Latias near one of them...

There really wasn't anything else for it. She was going to have to swim, but she wasn't going to have to swim all the way across. She could cut a large amount from the swim if she jumped.

She crawled back a bit more, then pounced into a run. Two bounds took her close to the edge. She extended her legs to do another bound, but with horror realised that she was already at the water's edge. She tried moving her front paws to get a little bit of grip on the edge, but instead of propelling her, she ended up tripping over, falling the three feet from the edge and into the water with a yelp and a splash.

* * *

Mac glanced at Bianca, who had just come around the corner into the main canal.

"Bianca, how many Absol are there? As in, how common?"

"They're not that rare, just hard to find, they live that high up. You don't get them in Altomare at all though. Why do you ask now?"

"Can they swim?"

Bianca pulled a concerned face and pulled on the tow line, making her speed up.

"Not really, no. Why, Mac?"

"Don't quote me, but I'm pretty sure I saw that Absol from earlier jump into the canal. I did! Look! It's swimming!"

Mac pointed with the paddle and nearly over balanced, but Bianca squinted and saw Absol too: up to her head in the water, panting, doing a weird doggy-paddle and the scythe on her head drawn back in determination. Bianca shouted.

"Absol! What are you doing?"

Absol was too busy flailing to get to the other side. Whatever it was, it wasn't swimming.

The Mudkip started chasing after Absol, clearly confused about this new thing in the water, which brought Bianca within smelling distance of the snow Pokemon. She gestured for Mac to follow, and hoped Absol had been on a boat before.

Mac propelled the boat closer to Absol, stopping it directly in her path. He dropped the oar and leaned to pull Absol over, but Bianca shouted a warning.

"Careful Mac! She's really pissed off! I wouldn't touch her if I were you!"

Mac nodded and stepped away from the edge Absol was about to collide with. a few seconds later, Absol hit it, and tried climbing over the edge.

Absol didn't know what was in her way, but it was wooden, it was floating and it looked dry. The last bit was particularly important, Absol didn't think she could float that longer: the only thing keeping her going being the thought of her pups. Mac watched as two front paws grappled with the boat's edge, also leaning to counteract the weight of Absol clinging to the side.

Absol was having a hard time pulling herself over the edge. The gap between. the water and the edge of the boat was only about one and a half feet, but she was being pulled down by her fur and getting that additional height was impossible with that weight.

Mac realised that leaning was raising the lip of the boat, and that by letting Absol pull the boat down, he could help her board. He'd have to make sure the boat didn't tip completely, but it was either that or watch Absol struggle in vain.

Mac leaned slightly towards Absol and instantly the boat tipped an alarming amount, lowering the rim. Mac saw Absol's angry face and nearly jumped off. Nearly did. Instead, he let her get her front paws all the way over the lip, then leant back onto the other side, more this time. The lip raised, bringing Absol with it and tumbling her into the boat.

Absol looked up at the human. He smelt new, she hadn't met him before, but he definitely knew Latias. Which was cause enough for not letting him near her. She raised her heckles and barked at the large human.

Mac was expecting Absol to perhaps be thankful, not for her to look at him like he was lunch. Mac made the instinctive and diplomatic decision to jump out of the boat, thankful for the overzealous amount of flotation devices.

Human removed, Absol shook herself to get rid of the water that had tainted her fur down to the skin. Water flew in every which direction, and although Absol now looked like she'd been electrocuted, at least she weighted less. And the boat didn't seem too far from the other side of the canal, to the jetty that went onto the other side of the path. Thinking on, she could've got the human to move the boat even closer, but now she'd scared him, it looked like she'd have to take another go at jumping the remaining two meter gap.

* * *

Lorenzo was feeling oddly inadequate. Both dragons appeared to be sound asleep, tail-to-snout and encircling the young pups, which were also all sound asleep. It was unlikely that Latios or Latias was actually asleep, of course. They were still alert, but their eyes were closed.

Lorenzo had dragged over a plastic lawn chair and was now sat facing the Pokemon, as close as Latios had allowed, about three meters. It was reasonable. Lorenzo couldn't help but notice, though, that the situation would never happen in the wild: it was incredibly likely that the cold temperatures of Absol's habitat would, in the relatively short term, kill both the dragons. Plus the fact that they and Absol should be mortal enemies.

Lorenzo had prided himself on making as much of the dragon's lives as close to the wild as possible: deliberately not looking after the garden, making them find their own food, not solving their sibling disputes unless they got totally out of hand. But though he could do that, he couldn't stop friendships like this. Both sides had ignored instinct and accepted the other in their time of need. It was really quite something, considering they weren't supposed to even share a habitat.

'But that's not one hundred percent true, now, is it?' The voice at the back of Lorenzo's head niggled, but he ignored it. Definitely not a thought the dragons should hear...

Latias had really grown since he was a kid, both in size and in personality. When he was small, Latias' actions were mostly random and not really for any purpose. But now, though, she seemed to be putting more thought into things, even if the thought was illogical. Then again, perhaps he'd just got to know her better.

Lorenzo leaned back in the chair and smiled, closing his eyes for a nice nap. It was a bit cold if you were in the wind, but the garden was enclosed by buildings and there wasn't even a breeze. Just him, the sun, and the relaxing sound of Latias snoring quietly in the background.

That was, of course, until there came a howling over the rooftops, which woke all the sleeping animals, including the pups. They stayed inside the ring of dragons, but started yipping back at the sky.

Latias stayed where she was, keeping the pups encircled, but shouted at Latios, who had flown up and over the now-awake pups.

"Who was that?!"

Latios hadn't actually been asleep, and he'd heard all of it.

"It's Absol. She was telling to pups to stay where they were."

Latias grinned.

"Awesome! Absol's back! Lorenzo needs to open the door for her!"

Lorenzo had indeed got up, but only to look around for the source of the sound. Latios knew better.

"I don't think she needs the door."

He was right.

In seconds, Absol appeared on the roof of the building opposite Katie's, looking down on the closed garden.

"YOU MONSTERS STAY AWAY FROM THEM!"

Latias frowned. Was Absol on about them?

Absol answered by jumping off the roof and falling directly towards Latias, who was still laid down on the floor. Latias watched as the big cat got larger and larger in her vision. Surely she wasn't going to-

With a thump that was more painful than it sounded, a still-damp Absol landed on Latias, square on her back. Latios was slow to react for once, as Lorenzo watched in bumbling confusion.

"STAY AWAY FROM MY PUPS!" Absol growled as she lunged and bit into the top of Latias' neck.

Latios cursed himself for being so trusting towards the ice type and believing that she wouldn't actually go for Latias. Something needed to be done, obviously.

Latias growled back and flew up, tipping Absol off her and towards the ground, where she landed with a wet slap, fur still drenched from the canal. Immediately she was on her paws again, facing Latias, the two of them having a growling match. Latias didn't want to hurt Absol, but her neck was bleeding and while it didn't hurt, it had made her pristine white feathers a blood red shade, and it made her rage. She and Latios had spent ages getting them nice and white for him, and now a good day's grooming was ruined!

Absol saw Latias barring her teeth and made the next move, charging a fully fledged ice beam. It would be a second before it was ready, but when it was, it'd hit Latias at point blank range. Latias growled more intently and spat out some flame in response, Absol's final warning.

Neither of the females got to go through with their threats.

Latios had by that time flew around enough to give himself sufficient momentum, which he used by flying right into Absol, who went flying sideways into a hedge. Immediately her pups ran up to her side, meowing for milk. She was too busy getting up a second time.

Latios was floating next to Latias, properly angry. Not only had Absol tried ice beaming Latias, she'd bit her too! On the neck!

He flew to within a foot of her face and roared. To Lorenzo it sounded like a particularly loud coo, but it was different in that it was much lower, much more urgent and there was fire coming out at the end of every syllable.

"YOU DO NOT TOUCH LATIAS, YOU MUTT!"

It was the worst insult Latios could think of, but Absol didn't seem to care, and if anything, seemed to be getting ready to fight back. Play fighting was over now, the claws were out. Literally. Absol growled back as she weighed up the angles.

"Glorified Wingull! You hide because people wouldn't like to see you. Fly away from my pups!"

Latios tempted fate and flew even closer. This wasn't about getting her to stop attacking, this was about showing her who was boss.

"Or you'll What? Set your mate on me?"

Absol didn't even flinch at the inference, she was in the zone. Latios' underbelly was his weakest point, he couldn't withdraw his arms that quickly and it'd be easy enough to get a slash in to ward him off...

Latios was already a step ahead, reading her mind.

"Don't even think about that. My belly is stronger than all of your bones put together."

Latias watched, looking back and forth between the two, getting more and more panicked and still wanting a peaceful resolution. If Absol struck at Latios, odds were he'd over-retaliate. He wouldn't start the attack himself, though. Not on another female. She'd have to provoke him one last time.

Lorenzo had backed way off and Latias wanted to comfort him too, but there was so much other stuff to do. The pups had been shocked into silence and were cowering underneath Absol.

Latios looked at the pups and considered lifting one up psychicly as a threat. That would stop her. Latias intervened.

"No Latios! Leave her!"

Latios looked at his mate, then back at Absol. She was hunkered low over the pups, protecting them with her own body. Latias was right. This fight wasn't worth it.

And yet, another glance at the blood on Latias' feathers told him the opposite. "It was an accident, now leave her alone." Latias didn't actually believe it was an accident, but if it stopped Latios, she was going to say it.

Latios looked between the two females again. Looking at Absol and her pups made him want to stop. Looking at Latias and the blood on her neck made him want to start. And if he didn't start something, Absol was going to go around thinking it was okay to hurt Latias.

Latios flew right in Absol's face, snout filling her vision, and growled a final threat.

"Touch her again, you're lunch."

That said, He flew backwards until it was safe enough to have his back to her, gestured for Latias to come with him, turned around and flew off into the sky, the two of them turning invisible as they reached the rooftops.

Absol stayed where she was, growling at thin air until she was sure they'd left. Once she was, her legs finally turned to jelly and she fell on her side, to the delight of the pups, which started suckling her side immediately.

Absol vowed never to piss Latios off again. He was friendly, yes, but when he didn't like you, you knew all about it. She still wasn't exactly sure why they'd surrounded her pups in the first place, but she knew what dragons were like. They probably wanted them for food. Attacking Latias was the right thing to do. She mewed to the pups as they fed.

"It's okay. They've gone now..."

* * *

Latias set down in the garden and Latios immediately started rummaging around her neck with his snout where Absol had bit her. The rest of his body was curved around to protect her, and he was apologising the entire time.

"I should have NEVER let that stupid ice type near you. I should have seen it, I'm sorry! Look what what she did! You were all nice and shiny, now look. Blood everywhere! Are you okay? Hurt? Why did you stop me?"

Latias whined back. She withdrew her arms and tried reaching the cut as Latios started to lick around it, but they were just too small.

"She was just looking after her pups. When we have pups I'd do that."

"Yeah, but that's you. Absol can have loads of puppies, we don't know about ourselves enough. You might only have one egg..."

"Could we ask Lorenzo? We could look at our own eggs again!"

Lorenzo's great great grandfather had collected the larger pieces of Latias' and Latios' eggs and put the shards in two boxes, one for the shards found near Latias, one for the shards found near Latios. If they were anything to go by, both genders - despite technically being a different species - had the same type of egg: cream with red and blue triangles.

Latios frowned.

"We've looked and sniffed and tasted them enough. They don't say anything about us, they're too old and broken."

Latias cooed disappointedly.

"Still...Absol wasn't being nasty. She was just emotional because we were near her pups."

"She bit you, I'm not going to let anyone hurt you."

Latias giggled as Latios picked up one of her trailing paws in his. His was easily twice as big and three times as wide, and Latias blushed even further underneath her feathers. Latios was nice, and his paw was reassuringly warm to the touch. It felt right.

Latios chuckled back. Latias' cute little claws fitted neatly between his larger claws, it was just right. Bianca was always getting them to 'hold hands' when she was small, but that was in a brother-sister way. This time was different. Neither of them ever wanted to let go.

* * *

"Stop here!" Bianca ordered, pointing to a jetty that went directly into a Pokémart. "I need to buy some medicine for twins."

"Medicine?"

"Yeah. Latias' got worms, and she gets really tired and irritable. So I get them medicine to kill the bugs. They don't like it, but hey, they're still going to have it. It was what I was trying to feed Latios yesterday."

Mac was told to wait in the boat as Bianca jumped off her float and freed the Mudkip, handing it the remaining Pokeblocks in return, which it eagerly gobbled down. She'd decided to do the last stint with Mac pulling her.

She was in and out of the shop in under two minutes, shaking a medicine bottle with a Pokemon-proof cap as she left.

"Airtight container this time. Just rub this bottle on your arm for a second, Mac."

Mac took the bottle but stood still. "What?"

"Rub the bottle on your arm. It overrides the smell of the Pokemart so they don't know we've got them".

"Err...okay, then"

Bianca clicked her fingers as Mac rubbed the bottle on his arms.

"How about you help me administer it?"

Mac looked at Bianca like she was crazy.

"Ha! No. I saw them last night. There's a reason you gave up."

"Yeah, I'd broken the two tablets we had left. They don't bite. You wouldn't even have to go near their teeth, I'd do that. Just grab their wings and hold their arms in. Simple."

"Simple, not easy."

"Latias respects you a lot, she'd not even struggle. Are you sure?"

"I'm sure."

"Well, if your sure...right, we're going back to Katie's now. Wrap this around the back". She handed the tow rope to Mac, who took it in trade for the medicine bottle and tied it around the figure on the rear of the boat, knotting it off with a standard marine knot. Bianca nodded her approval and jumped onto her float, blatantly showing off her balancing ability on the round-bottomed craft. Mac still had to carefully step into the boat.

"This'll be trickier than usual." Bianca mulled over as she habitually balanced on the deliberately unstable float. Going quickly on the floats was easier than going slower, because you were less susceptible to being thrown off by waves, plus the high-speed waters either side made it harder to tilt, and therefore tip over.

The float was a unique design, as was every float Bianca painted. They all, however, included a painting of Latias or Latios on the side of it. The Pokemon was unique to the float builder, it was like a signature: no other boat builder in Alto Mare would draw/paint them. It wasn't the law, it was just the done thing. Lorenzo and Bianca had Latios and Latias, The boat builder at the pier would paint Kyogre, his neighbor, Groudon. Lugia belonged to another builder across town, and so on. It was a ready made brand identity: Bianca and Lorenzo were known for nice looking and well shaped craft. The Groudon floats were large and ruthless, the Kyogre ones large but graceful. Who a person went to depended on what they valued: Quick build time, appearance, performance, size. Pick two and go for the builder that specialised in those two things.

Bianca's float's were the most extravagantly painted ones on the canal, and they had won plenty of design competitions. The one she was on today was not one of them, but she liked it anyway.

On the front was a face-first paint of Latias, looking dead ahead, so her mouth wasn't visible. That started out with the white, but then the sides and back patterned out to red, where it was adorned with all sorts of smaller and more intricate caricatures. The float was so cleverly designed that you never knew quite what you were looking at depending on what you wanted to see, what perspective you were looking at it in.

Bianca considered it one of her more childish designs.

"The big Latias snout," she had told Mac, "Makes it look a bit dumb."

Mac had stayed neutral and said nothing.

Mac turned around and saw Bianca giving him a hands-up. He nodded, grabbed the paddle and used it to push himself away from the jetty. That done, he put it in the water and started doing even strokes, dragging the paddle through the water on his right hand side. There was a knack to it, but if you got the stroke length and your own balance just right, it was possible to only paddle on one side and go in a straight line, and not have to switch the paddle over. Mac's boat wasn't particularly big, and the underside only had a small fin, so not turning was hard. Bianca told him it was okay when he'd only just started, but that he shouldn't pass the dripping wet paddle above the deck, otherwise you'd end up with damp and annoyed passengers.

That said, he'd picked up a fair pace on the straights, learnt what all the water way signs were, and had just about got the hang of corners. Bianca tested him now, only reminding him of the turn for Katie's at the last second.

"TURN RIGHT NOW!"

That side, at least, was preferable as that was the side the oar was on. To turn you stuck the oar in the water on the side you wanted to turn. That wasn't just it, though. You also needed to lean in the opposite direction to counter the force of being dragged into the water by the oar. He didn't know that the first time, and had capsized the entire boat, falling in with it, much to Bianca's amusement. She'd even got the Mudkip to Water Gun him as further insult to injury.

He made the turn without fail and carried on towards Katie's house.

* * *

Hand bandaged up, Katie walked out of the Pokemon Center and headed for the jetty, where her water-ski still was. She never normally used it - petrol was expensive, it made a huge noise and the majority of Altomareians hated them - but in her haste to save Absol she'd used it. Which also meant she'd have to take it back.

She kept her head down as she fished the keys out from her pockets and climbed onto the craft. She could swear that there were at least ten people staring and tutting at her. In Alto Mare, you either loved jet skis, or hated them. The majority hated them because it ruined the calmness and old-style feel the town had.

Katie started the craft and rapidly pulled away from the wharf, the buzz of the engine bouncing off the walls of the canal, before revving it to full pelt and accelerating down the water ally, a parade of scornful looks following behind her.

She navigated the waterways without even thinking, and before long she had arrived back at her house. Two people were stood on the wooden boards that made up the dock, Bianca and Mac. She decided to have some fun and sped up, turning a fraction of a second later than she would've normally done. The ski's plastic hull slammed harmlessly into the pier, but a giant wave also formed, splashing over Mac, to his complete surprise. Bianca had somehow avoided the soaking.

Katie killed the engine and hopped onto dry land, sniggering at Mac, who looked fit to murder someone.

"How on earth did that ONLY get me?"

Katie wasn't sure either, but Mac had a ridiculous amount of floats on and decided to push things a little further. Literally.

"Watch out!" she shouted, and pointed behind Mac and Bianca. Both span around and Mac ducked slightly.

"What? I can't-"

Before he could figure it out, Katie pushed Mac forward, over the edge of the pier. Mac didn't even have time to express his surprise as he ended up in the water again, with a splash.

"Ha! High Five!"

Katie turned to Bianca with her hand raised, and Bianca dutifully high-fived as Mac watched from the water. It was cold, yes, but after his fourth immersion, he'd given up caring.

Eventually the girls stopped laughing and Mac pulled himself out of the canal. Bianca finally got to ask Katie.

"Katie, why was Absol in the main canal about ten minutes ago?"

Katie stopped laughing and looked worried.

"She was in the water?!"  
"Uhu. Mac saved her though, and she galloped off down the side-thingy to here. Why?"

Katie explained and hurried into the house, showing Bianca her bandaged hand.

"She bit me and ran off. And she can't swim. You said she came back here?"

"Yep."

The troupe made it to where Lorenzo was sat, looking somewhat worried. Katie went over to Absol as Bianca interrogated Lorenzo.

"Where's Latias!? And Latios!?"

Lorenzo stood up and calmed Bianca down.

"They and Absol had a bit of a spat, by the looks of it. I think they flew home." He deliberately didn't mention Latias' wound. Bianca looked happier.  
"Oh, right. Other than that, were they okay?"  
"Oh, fine. They should babysit more often."

Katie had gone to ruffle Absol's kins - where the spare pup was snuggled against - to let her knew no hard feelings, but she growled as she got close. Katie took it as a sign she wanted something.

"Okay, what if I bring food? And a towel?"

Absol's growl got a bit quieter, which Katie took for a yes. She dashed off to get Absol some food from the kitchen.

She came back a few seconds later with a plastic bowel filled with Pokemon food. Bianca looked at it.

"What food's that?" They only ever fed Latias and Latios either human food or Pokeblocks. The stuff Katie was about to give Absol looked like a brown mush.

"Well, I don't really know. I just got the biggest bag of Pokemon food I could find, because she'll need a lot more now. What with the pups."  
"Oh."

Katie got closer to Absol and put the bowl down in front of her face. Absol rolled over so she was now lying on her paws, before dipping her head into the bowl and chewing down the food. The pups started to whine and try and force themselves under her to carry on feeding, but Absol stayed where she was. The healing machine didn't cure hunger, and she was starving.

* * *

I MADE THE POKÉMEMES HOMEPAGE! ON DIGLETT WEDNESDAY! That is all, please read and review.


	7. Chapter 7

Apologies in advance for the lack of quality/slight mushiness in this chapter. My phone kept crashing every ten minutes and it was hard to hold a theme. Anyhow...

Also, A HUGE Thanks to Obiten for playing editor and cleaning up the dredfull mess of words I had given him as an excuse for this chapter. Like I said, my phone messed up big time to the point where one paragraph became completely d͎͙̱̟̳̤ͩ̾͞e̜̟̅͂̓͑͋ͭ͠v̻̖͚̣̲̱ͥͮͩ̀̊o̝̣͖͕̮ͫ̏̂̏͛̇̚ư̸̡̩͕͙̦̜͚̖̠̫ͫ̋͌̇͂̂r̢̳̱̤͍̞̎ͭ̃̉̂̎ͥe͖̹͚͔̟̻̊ͧ̾ḑ̟̬̱̞͛ͨ. Like that. So, yeah, a HUGE round of applause for the wonderful Obiten!

* * *

We_ rejoin our heroes in the garden, on a certain red and white chequered picnic blanket a few of you will recognize from Life Like Latios._

"How big is this place?"

Mac awed as he looked around. They'd walked for two minutes to get to the spot they were at and they weren't even past the center.

"It's quite big. We're not quite sure how big either, and if you measure around the outside it'll be a lot smaller than it actually is."

Mac gave a puzzled expression and quoted one of his favourite TV shows.

"It's...bigger on the inside?"

"That's what it looks like."

"Cool!"

It was beyond cool, but in the past few days Mac had been kidnapped by a telepathic bird, shot by the military and teleported half the way around the world. The extra-ordinary had become the day to day routine.

"Anyway, how's about we have a late lunch?"

Bianca reached for the picnic basket and started taking loaves out and the like, but Mac kept looking around.

"Where's Latios and Latias?"

Bianca kept unpacking, not concerned.

"They'll be here. Watch."

Even though she couldn't see them, Bianca got the distinct impression that the dragons were watching them. Their downs weren't 100% accurate most of the time, and once or twice when they'd sat down, she'd seen a bit of color which didn't line up with it's surroundings. She took a plastic tub out of the picnic basket and opened the lid, releasing a fishy smell.

"Fish? Not a fan." Mac complained, trying to peek and see what else was in the basket.

Bianca shook her head as she took a relatively small - about fifteen centimeters long - fish out from the tub. "It's not for you, I said. Watch."

That said, she threw the fish away from the picnic with a flick of the wrist.

The next thing Mac knew, Latios and Latias were flying in from the right out of nowhere and headed for the fish, shouting in Lati as they got closer.

"It's mine!"  
"No, Mine!"  
"I saw it first!"  
"Well I'm going to get to it first!"

Mac watched as the fish was snatched from his vision, by which dragon he couldn't tell. He found out a second later when Latias flew to the floor but Latios turned around and started yapping at the tub in Bianca's hand, trying to lever it open. She gave him a scornful look.

"No! You wait a second!"

Latios carried on. Bianca responded with a steadily more threatening voice.

"Latios...Three...Two..."

She raised her hand and Latios realised his vulnerable position. He backed off from the tub but stayed close, making a long and prolonged coo through his closed mouth. Bianca put her hand down, and then slowly opened the tub. Latios face lit up and he started yapping again.

"Thanks Bianca! Thank You! Thanks! I let Latias win, that's good, right?"

Bianca didn't understand him and slowly removed a fish. Latios stopped cooing and stabilised in the air, ready, alert and waiting for the treat.

Without warning, Bianca flicked her wrist again, sending the treat into air. Latios darted after it, snapped it up and flew next to Latias to eat it.

Bianca smiled at Mac.

"They really like fish. They're sea faring mammals."

Mac nodded sarcastically. "I'm going to pretend I know what that means..."

Away from them, Cubone wandered towards Latias and Latios, who had just finished their fish and were about to fly up. They stopped when they saw the ground type. He was in a bad mood, and Latias could feel his aura, stronger than she'd seen it before. Normally, Cubone's aura was dull, no matter what color.

"Oh, you're back. Nice for you to take me with you..."

Latias looked ashamed and nuzzled his shoulder by way of apology.

"Sorry Cubone! We forgot! Anyway, you wouldn't have liked it. Absol's gone a bit crazy. She bit Katie, her pups bit Mac, then she passed out."

Latios nuzzled Cubone's shoulder too.

"Not in that order."

Cubone didn't look any more happy. He'd just shifted to upset.

"You forgot me, didn't you?"

It was true, they had.

"Err...yeah, we did." Latias coo'd sheepishly. She brightened up as a plan dawned on her, though.

"To make it up, why don't we play with Mac?"

"All of us?"

"Yeah. He'll probably give us food while we're there."

That sealed the deal for Cubone, and he climbed onto Latias' back. The three of them flew to Mac, who was buttering a slice of bread. He didn't notice until Latias' snout was two feet from the bread in his hand. Mac looked her in the eyes.

"You're back for more?"

Latias gave a small nod and a head flick towards Cubone on her back. Mac looked at Bianca with a shrug. She nodded.

"Sure, go on. He eats anything. He can't catch, though, so don't throw it."

Latias moved closer and Mac handed Cubone the slice of bread he'd just buttered. He took it, and started eating, putting the square of bread under his skull helmet and nibbling away. Mac looked back to Bianca as Latias chattered with Cubone.

"Bianca, what does he look like under that skull thing?"

Cubone wasn't paying attention, but even then, Bianca shook her head urgently. He'd just asked an unaskable.

"We don't know, nor do we want to find out."

Mac nodded as he got the gist. Clearly Cubone was sensitive about it.

While the two teens were talking, Latios had managed to float closer to the box with the fish in, much to Latias' delight. She refrained from cheering him on.

The box was right next to Bianca's knee, and since she was looking at Mac, it and the space above it was out of her sight. It was not, however, out of Mac's. Mac saw Latios and interrupted Bianca.

"...interesting actually, we've got a bo-"

"Bianca, is Latios allowed to help himself?"

"What?"

Mac subtlety pointed at Latios, and Bianca looked down. All three froze for a second, Latios with his jaw just around the lip of the box and looking up at Bianca.

Latios and bianca were both still, until Latios' wing twitched and Bianca raised her hand the hit him over the snout, also shouting.

"Latios! DROP IT!"

But by the time she'd said that, he'd already nabbed the box and flown up and around her, Latias and Cubone in tow behind him. Latios led them to rest in a tree a few meters off the ground. Once they'd settled, they tried opening the box, chewing at the plastic. Bianca ran to to bottom of the tree and started shouting.

"NO! THAT'S STEALING! BRING IT BACK, NOW!"

She was shouting, but it was clear she wasn't serious. They were going to be fed the fish anyway. Latias shouted back down as Latios and Cubone wrestled with the box.

"OURS NOW! CAN'T GET IT!"

Which tempted fate.

"I got this." Mac gave Bianca a tap on the shoulder as he walked past her and right up to the tree.

"They're, like five meters up, Mac."

"Yeah, but they're up a tree."

And with that said, he began to climb the tree, tackling the first two meters without any branches, just clinging to the thick trunk.

Latias was looking at the box longingly. They didn't want to destroy the box, just open it, which was proving difficult. Bianca had it in a dragon proof box.

Opening it required opposable thumbs and some sort of gripping finger print to operate a catch and rotate the lid at the same time. There wasn't a handle or anything like that on the lid, and it was recessed. Without a fingerprint to get friction on it, it was impossible to rotate and therefore open.

Not that either three Pokemon present even understood that was how it opened. Latios' current method was to chew on a corner. The plastic wasn't bite-proof, but the edges were coated with a material and it was too slippery for Latios' teeth to purchase. It was like running marble over steel. Neither lost, but neither won either.

Latias looked down at Bianca again, and yipped when she saw Mac no more than two meters away, legs stood on a branch and arms in the motion of swinging up to another one.

Latias hadn't seen a human in a tree before. Altomare didn't have many trees other than in the garden, and humans didn't climb the ones that existed. She yipped and made Latios jump. The tub of fish nearly fell, but Cubone had it in his paw a second before it would have gone out of his reach.

"Look! Mac! In our tree!"

Latios looked down, tub back in mouth. He spoke through it in a worried tone.

"Humans can climb trees?"

At that point, Mac was in reach of the branch the Pokemon were on. He grabbed it and started pulling himself up, which sent Latias crazy.

"No! Go away! This is our tree!"

Mac persisted, using another branch to push off with his feet and get closer to being on the same level as the Pokemon.

Bianca shouted up at him, both amazed and concerned.

"Careful, Mac! They're territorial when it comes to trees!"

It was true. They had trees for sleeping, trees for eating, trees for grooming, even trees when they were feeling paranoid and wanted to hide. Mac climbing up one they thought was human proof was probably not a good idea.

This was proven when Latias started levering his fingers off the branch with the point of her snout, growling as Mac resisted. It was a loosing battle for him, though.

Latias levered one more of Mac's fingers from around the branch and he lost his grip entirely. Luckily, he'd moved his feet back to the lower branch, and although he wobbled around, he didn't fall out of the tree entirely. He crouched on the branch for better stability and looked up at the Pokemon.

"Mac, don't bother! We were going to give them it them anyway!"

Mac looked down at Bianca.

"Really?"

"Yeah, Really. Now come down and let's eat!"

"Why don't you come up here?"

Mac was joking and was already climbing down. He reached the last branch and jumped the last bit where there weren't any branches. Bianca winced as he hit the floor and rolled.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Did you see how far you just fell?"

"I didn't fall, I jumped. And that isn't even high..."

In the tree, Latios had given up on the box and passed it Latias, opting to watch Mac and Bianca instead.

Quite how Mac had got in the tree, Latios didn't know. Humans just didn't end up in trees, unless they were put in them, or had some machine. Clearly, Mac had done it to show off to Bianca. Even now he was boasting! "isn't even high". He was right, but the way he said it gave Latios the impression that he was showing off a bit. Clearly wanting her to be his mate.

Not only that, but all the places Latios thought it was safe for them to sleep were now perfectly accessible to humans! Mac could climb the tree while they were asleep and surprise them!

"Latias?"

Latias had defaulted to trying the same method of opening the box as her mate, and was biting away at a corner, with a little more success. Her teeth were closer together and this made it easier going to get a grip on the surface.

"Uh-hu?"

"Mac was in our tree?"

"Yeah. They can climb!"

Latios paused as he tried to face the dilemma.

"We need to make a nest." It seemed like the rational thing to do. He'd seen Wingull and Pidgey in nests, and they seemed like a good solution. If they could build a nest that stopped humans getting to them while they were sleeping, it made sense for them to try. Besides, it'd be more comfortable in winter, which was still approaching.

Latias spat the box out and gave it to Cubone, who grappled with it while Latias nuzzled Latios' snout. It was a great idea, after all. They'd have nest all to themselves! Like a proper couple!

"Great! Lets make one! Now!"

The thought evaporated when Cubone gave a bark of triumph and prised the box open, letting the slightly battered lid fall to the ground. He took a fish for himself and handed the box to Latias, who grabbed it with a squeal and wedged it in a branch next to her, taking a fish once she was sure the box wouldn't move. Latios leaned in and took a small fish too, gobbling it down with a smile.

Bianca looked up at the dragons, and Mac followed her gaze. The branches the two Pokemon were resting on looked thick enough to support the two of them, and Cubone was sat on a third, much thinner branch. The two humans stayed looking up as they ate. Mac cleared his mouth and spoke.

"Isn't it funny how they've both got the same pattern, just in the opposite color?"

"The triangle thing?"

"Yeah."

"I guess. What are you thinking?"

"Well. Can they see in color?"

Bianca stopped looking up and looked at Mac. He stayed looking at the roosting mammals.

"What?"

"Well, where I'm from, some animals - dogs and that kind of thing - can't see a certain color. Or they can only see black and white. What if those two are the same?"

Bianca mulled it over. Mac did have a point. But...

"Nah, they know colors. Latios knows he's blue and Latias is red. Even if it's their reflection."

"AH! But what about the color green? If they only saw that as a shade of grey, or a mix of red and blue, that would explain why they think they can hide in the grass. Because, you know... That's green."

Bianca smiled and shook her head.

"Good try, but no. They try and hide like that everywhere. Latias'll do it on the blue beanbags in her room. Tell you what, though. Lorenzo's got a book that our ancestors made that's got all sorts of observations in them. I'll let you give that a read sometime."

In the tree, Latias and Latios were finishing the last of the fish. Cubone had nabbed three and Latios had managed to gobble down about eight, but Latias had eaten the most by far, out-eating Latios by double. She dipped her head into the box to get more, but made a whining noise at Latios when her snout reached the plastic of the tub.

"No more?"

"No more." Latios nodded back.

Latias started licking the remainder of the taste from the tub, complaining at the same time.

"That tasted good, now it's gone..."

Latias always felt guilty when she'd had more than Latios, and eaten nice food quickly. Every time, she'd snap the food down without stopping to enjoy the taste, then be disappointed when it didn't last. At least there were still berries.

She flew up and shouted to Latios, looking and sniffing around at the same time.

"I'm going to get some berries!"

Latios smiled back.

"Bring me some too!"

Just as Latias flew clear of the tree's branches, Latios shouted again.

"The Box! Box! You can carry more!"

Latias flew around, grabbed the box in her mouth, and flew back out of the tree, squealing a thanks at the same time.

Latias secretly envied other Pokemon that had pouches or things like that. A pouch would be ace. Even just paws she could hold in a cup shape to hold them would be OK, not these stupid rounded ones that stuff just rolled out of. If she had some kind of natural pouch, she could go out, collect berries and other things, and then fly back without dropping any. Otherwise she'd have to take some other carrier - like the box - or eat the berries from the bush. Which meant Latios didn't get anything, since he didn't eat any berry that she hadn't picked. That, and his paws were too wide to fit far enough into a bush to get the good ones.

Latias flew over the two humans heads and her shadow made Mac look up from his jam sandwich. He spoke with his mouth full.

"Wherlbs she howing?"

"What?!"

Mac swallowed his food, cleared his mouth and tried again.

"Where's she going?"

Bianca followed Latias with her eyes as she stooped down on a bush at the opposite of the clearing, before plunging her entire front into it.

"Oh, she's just picking berries. You want to see?"

Mac had to admit, he was intrigued.

"Sure!"

Bianca agreed and the two stood up at the same time, and walked over to Latias, who still had her head buried in the berry bush. She was also making various disappointed noises. The humans stood behind her silently, waiting for her to turn around.

Eventually, she did, three berries gently held in her teeth. She dropped them in the box, then turned to Bianca and spoke in Lati.

"Bianca! Do you want berries?"

Bianca knew the tone Latias used when she asked a question, and she patted Latias' head as she replied.

"Mac just wanted to see you getting them. Do you want to get him one?"

Latias coo'd a 'yep' and stuck her head back in the bush. Mac was back to asking questions.

"Why isn't she using her paws?"

"Oh. The bush isn't tall enough. She needs to fly vertically to be able to see her claws."

"Oh, okay then..."

Latias took her head out of the bush again, a single berry in her mouth. Mac was stood with his arms at the side, and Latias didn't have anywhere to put the berry, so she nudged his hand with her snout, trying to put it in his hand.

"Come on, Mac. Hold your hand out for Latias..." Bianca frowned as Mac looked confused. He flattened out his plam, though, and Latias deposited the berry with a cheer. Then she flew back a bit and waited for Mac's reaction.

Latias had chosen the berry deliberately. It was a rawst berry, the same type that he'd given her after her rescue. Mac just looked at in puzzlement.

"So, I can eat this?"

Latias nodded and gave a positive yip even though he'd directed the comment at Bianca.

"Okay then..."

Mac held the berry to his face for a few seconds, before plopping it into his mouth whole, and chewing.

He was slightly put off by eating something that Latias had had in her mouth, but Bianca hadn't stopped him, so it must have been fine. As for the actual taste, it was okay. Fruity, but not exceptionally. If Mac was to compare it to something else, he'd have gone for a tomato with a duller flavor.

The texture, on the other hand, was horrific, the stuff of nightmares. Mac could swear that the skin was made of human flesh and the insides, made of a hybrid of really chewy jelly and sand.

He kept it in his mouth for as long as he could, but the skin analogy made him remember the pilot from the airplane, or, more accurately, the remains of the pilot. Without warning, the imagery in Mac's head faltered, reliving events that didn't happen, as if they were current.

He was in the cockpit of the airplane. Latias was there too. She was offering him food. He was hungry. He'd not even had breakfast. The food he needed to stay alive, or starve. He took the food and ate it, enjoying the nutrients. Beneficial. But Mushy. Almost like human skin. He took it away. It was human skin. Latias had handed him the devoured pilot's foot, complete with tendons and ligaments. No muscle, the feet didn't have any. But lots of beneficial fat. And he kept eating, enjoying the meal with Latias, the two of them making happy noises as they ate.

Outside of Mac's head, Latias watched in alarm as he froze, seconds after putting the berry in his mouth. Then his joints started to shake and convulse.

The berry, it wasn't poisonous, Latias knew. She never got a berry wrong. Not poisonous to her, probably not to humans. Then she felt Mac's aura wave over her, a blitz of joy and depression and horror radiating from his head. It wasn't a poisonous berry, no, Mac was having some kind of emotional seizure.

Bianca was powerless to move as her friend started to shake harder and harder, but she fianlly managed to shout out and grab hold of Latias.

"LATIAS!? WHAT'S HE DOING?!"

Latias didn't know either, and Bianca grabbing her wing wasn't helping. In fact, it was right on the little triangles on the wing.

"GET OFF MY WINGS!" Latias turned around and shouted at Bianca.

Bianca leaped back, but the more important reaction was Mac's. He stopped convulsing and his eyes shot open. Latias and Bianca both looked at him as Latios flew towards them, having heard Latias' shrill cry. Mac managed a few words before he fell over.

"Could...someone...catch me?"

That said, his legs folded in on himself, Latias already there for the catch. His head hit the soft feathers on her neck instead of the floor.

Mac was still awake, but he spoke in a whisper as Latias fussed around him. Bianca had to strain to hear as her and Latios watched, Latios floating vertically at ease once he realised Latias wasn't in danger. That, and Mac's fractured aura had the effect of subduing him, in the same way smoke subdued bees.

"That wasn't real. Wasn't real. Wasn't real. I don't like human. Wasn't real. That didn't happen. But...but...but...it won't...it won't go away."

Latios turned when he felt Bianca's aura getting increasingly distressed. He coo'd at her and offered a psychic translation.

"He's fine. Latias is here, Latias fixes everything..."

This didn't give Bianca any more hope for Mac.

"Latios, I think he needs to go to the hospital."

Latias' ears pricked up when she heard that, and she psychicly argued back, staying with Mac as his aura started to calm down.

"No! Not hospital! He'll get even more scared?"

"Scared?"

"Yes. He's scared. Scared of..." Latias stopped and thought, before carrying on. "Scared of what he is."

It was an incredibly philosophical thing for Latias to say, and Bianca's face faltered.

"Latias, I think you're sleepy. That was a very deep thing to say..."

"No, he's scared. I know! He's thinking of bad things he's done, but they haven't happened."

"So? How are we going to fix that? Come on, he needs to go to the hospital"

Latios flew down to Mac and both him and Latias protested outloud and psychicly.

"NO! We're looking after him."

Bianca took a step closer and frowned.

"No, this is something a doctor should look at. Now move! Shoo! Buzz off!"

Latias was curved around Mac, and Latios was hovering horizontally over in a protective stance. Bianca wouldn't be able to touch Mac without Latios moving. And as Bianca took another step forward, Latios growled. Latias flew close to the ground and barred her teeth.

"No! Go away! He's ours!"

As much as an angry pair of Lati scared Bianca, she was concerned about her friend, and took yet another step forwards, hoping to out-gut the dragons. Latios growled deeper and Latias looked set to pounce. Bianca drew the line and backed off, wagging her finger and threatening them as she walked away.

"I'm going to fetch your whistle, and if you've not given up Mac by then, I'm sure going to blow it!"

Both twins ignored her, opting to settle around Mac, forming a circle with their wings down over him. Latios was curved around Mac's back, and Latias around his front, as he stayed, eyes closed, in the foetal position. Latias' snout was gently tickling Latios' as she quietly coo'd to him.

"We need to talk to him."

Latios nodded in agreement, and both dragons eyes simultaneously glowed blue as they connected with Mac's subconscious.

Mac was in a white room. There was no boundry to the room, no ceiling and no light source. The room was empty, with no distractions, no blemishes, no graphics, no gradiants and no other objects.

The room was, put simply, white.

Mac - or rather, Mac's viewpoint - was looking around the room.

In the corner, Mac heard a noise. He turned to face it, and there, no more than a meter away, had appeared a small red dragon, nibbling at its own wing.

"Bianca calls it knating. I'm itching with my teeth because my arms aren't big enough."

Mac heard Latias saying it, and he understood it, but it wasn't like there was a psychic translation or anything. He just heard the lati speach, and understood it.

"Do you want me to scratch that for you?"

Before she could respond, Latios materialised behind him, and flew to her.

"No, Latias is mine!"

The Latios in Mac's head breezed silently over the top of him and nuzzled Latias.

"Oh. Okay. Where have you put me?"

Mac knew he was dreaming, and the surreal surroundings had to be something to do with the psychic types.

Latias and Latios both started doing playful aerial maneuvers, and Mac realised that they were just figures of his imagination. He was making them do that. The dragons themselves were only doing the voices he could hear.

"You're in a safe place. You don't need to worry about anything" The more flamboyant voice indicated it was Latias. Latios spoke next, popping a question that explained why they were there.

"Mac, are you scared?"

"Of what?"

"Anything?"

"I guess...lots of things, really. Fire. Falling. Failing. You two scare me a bit sometimes..."

Mac felt Latias' aura go disappointed, and instantly felt bad for saying it.

"Why? What's scary about me?"

Mac shuddered as the scenery turned darker. He was allowing his memories to change the room. Shapes began to form, a policeman, enveloped in a bright white Hyperbeam, bursting from a diving Latias. The image was moving ever so slightly, and Mac shuddered as the memory twisted, forcing the policeman into a gory skeleton. The non-memory Latias made a clicking noise and the memory stopped. This time, Mac was looking down on his real-world self, being covered by the dragons. Latios provided the voice.

"That's instinct, Mac. All animals have it, even you. Latias did that because she cares about you. And neither of us will ever make you do anything that upsets you. Never."

There was a silence as Mac mulled it over.

"But, you were offering me-"

Latias butted in.

"That didn't happen, Mac. You were just worried that it had because you were scared of other things you'd done."

It was obvious by 'other things' she meant 'ended up killing everyone on a super-jet'. As mac started to remember that explosion, Latias pulled him back. The memory was now a made up one. Latias was on the grass, looking up at Mac, who was teasing her with a ball. Latios was waiting impatiently in the background, hovering just above, his eyes too locked on the ball.

"What happened to those people isn't your fault. You can't blame yourself for that. Thinking about it won't make it better."

Mac stuttered.

"But...you..."

"Yes, Mac, we look scary and we eat other animals, but that's how it is. You know how else it is? We play with Bianca. And each other. And Latias wants to play with you now," Latios was smiling when he said it. "Not watch you worry about stuff that isn't your fault."

"You're our friend, Mac. Whatever you did in the past is irrelevant. All that matters is now."

There was a pause as some force in Mac's head quelled all of his fears and questions.

Then, with a 'Pop', Mac's world went black.

Mac slowly regained consciousness. He could swear he'd heard a clicking noise. Faint, but there was one. It sounded familiar, but it took until he heard it again to realise where it was from. It was the sound of a camera shutter. Was someone taking his picture?

Mac stirred and his shoe knocked against something soft. The soft thing pushed back and made a 'nyu' noise.

Mac opened his eyes and had to refocus. There was something big and red right in front of himself. After going buzz-eyed for a second, Mac realised that the thing was Latias.

He kept his body still, but moved his head up to look towards the clicking noise. He got a brief glance of Bianca stood with a camera pointing at him, before Latias leaned forwards and pushed his head back under her wing.

Bianca made an 'awww' noise and took another picture, the SLR camera making a snapping noise as the shutter was opened for a fraction of a second, closed, and the film spooled on.

Mac didn't want to ruin the photo, so he waited a second before trying to move.

"Come on, Latias! Budge!"

"No! You're nice and warm now!"

"I'm not a dragon, Latias, I'm boiling. Shift."

Mac was pushing with his legs against Latias' rear, but it wasn't moving him from where he was. The top of his head was being protected by the underneath of Latias' snout, so his opportunity for escape was slim.

He pushed one last time, and it prompted a response from Latias, but it wasn't the one he wanted. Instead of letting him up, she started biting his hair, tugging at the blonde strands with her teeth.

"Latias, What?"

It wasn't painful, but at the same time, Mac wasn't exactly pleased. Aside from the few milliseconds of raw panic he'd experienced, Latias' mouth was probably crawling with germs and food remnants. Not something he wanted in his hair.

"Stay still!" Latias frowned, irritated by Mac's struggling. She wasn't doing anything wrong!

Bianca crouched down next to Mac so he could hear.

"Enjoying yourself?"

Mac was just about audible under the layers of feathers.

"I've been better. She certainly is soft, though. Does she do this to everyone?"

"Not really, only close family. You three look adorable, by the way."

"Three?"

"Yeah. You can't see him, Latios is behind you"

To prove this, Latios coo'd a 'Hi'. Mac jolted.

"Ah! Hi, Latios. Does he do this too?"

Latias stopped grooming Mac and started touching snouts with Latios instead, which prompted another click from Bianca's camera before she answered.

"Nope, he only ever grooms Latias. Speaking of, I've got something to show you"

Mac was genuinely interested by her tone of voice, and had also finally managed to free his hand from under Latias' wing. With another shove, Latias realised that Mac really didn't want an extended cuddle, and she moved her wing, allowing him to step up and over her and Latios, also ending up standing opposite Bianca. She was holding what looked like a red mobile phone.

"Cool. What is it?"

She handed it him and he took it, turning it over in his hands.

"This, Mac, is a Pokedex."

"Er...okay? What does it do?"

Bianca pointed at Latias.

"See for yourself. Point it at Latios, see what happens."

Mac did, but the device remained blank and silent.

Bianca leaned forward and rearranged the device in Mac's hand so the back was pointing at Latias and flipped a switch so it was turned on. The Pokedex chimed to life and a robotic voice started speaking.

"Latias, the legendary Eon pokemon. Latias is highly sensitive to the emotions of people. If she senses any hostility, this Pokémon ruffles the feathers all over her body and cries shrilly to intimidate the foe."

Mac raised one eyebrow, and that was pretty much it.

"So, it tells me about Latias. Huh."

Bianca shook her head and pointed at Latios.

"No, it works on any Pokemon! You might find it useful."

Mac did as Bianca gestured, and pointed the Pokedex at Latios.

"Latios, the legendary Eon Pokemon. Even in hiding, it can detect the locations of others and sense their emotions since it has telepathy. Its intelligence allows it to understand human languages. It has a docile temperament and dislikes fighting. Tucking in its forelegs, it can fly faster than a jet plane."

Latios heard his name being mentioned and both Eons flew up, yapping at the device.

"That's ME! I can go much faster! I don't have forelegs! Wrong!"

Bianca explained as Mac held the Pokedex away from the two dragons.

"Of course, all the information about those two that's on there is made up or guessed, based on the stuff at the museum, because the people who write the entries - the Pokemon professors - haven't actually seen them. Try it with another one they have seen...like...wait...where's Cubone?"

Latias stopped trying to get to the Pokedex and paused, neck straight with the point of her snout tilted at Latios. Latios mirrored the pose. They held it until the penny dropped on both Pokemon, and they flew to the tree where they had roosted an hour previously. Cubone was laid on a branch, paws hanging over the edge. Latias arrived with a squeal.

"Cubone! I'm so sorry! sososososo sorry! We forgot all about you! Again!"

Cubone grumbled sarcastically as Latios gave him a lick on the shoulder and Latias offered him a wing to walk on.

"Gee, guys, you're so kind. I just love being stuck a few meters off the ground."

Latias squirmed when she realised that - Cubone being a ground type - it was actually probably one of his worst fears.

Mac swung the Pokedex around as the Eons reappeared out of the tree, this time with Cubone on Latias' back. He managed to get Cubone in the center of the viewfinder, and the device dutifully read out his profile in the same cheery voice.

"Cubone, The lonely Pokemon. It pines for the mother it will never see again. Seeing a likeness of its mother in the full moon, it cries. The stains on the skull it wears are from its tears"

Mac spluttered at the depressing report.

"Charming..."

By that point, the Pokemon himself had done a lap of the clearing on Latias' back, and she was coming to a halt in front of Mac. While Latias had no problem dealing with the sudden stop, Cubone had momentum to maintain, and he ended up rolling head over heels on Latias' neck.

"Watch it!"

Just in time, Latias moved her neck, and Cubone - instead of falling to the floor - rolled to a stop off Latias' snout and on to Mac's shoulder.

Both Mac and Bianca were left completely surprised as the ground type clutched at Mac's head whilst he maintained balance. A small wobble later, and Cubone stood, the bottom of his skull helmet reaching the top of Mac's head.

Silence, that Bianca quickly removed as she nudged Latias' rear feathers, making her squeal and go snout to face with her.

"You know, Latias, Mac and Cubone look like perfect companions."

Having only just heard the Pokedexes depressing recount of Cubone's life, Mac was tempted to feel offended, but it lost it's offensiveness when Cubone turned on his shoulder and gave Mac a sample hug around the head, arm reaching around just above his eyes. He had to admit, it seemed ridiculously adorable and when he did it both Bianca and Latias looked close of fainting in delight.


	8. Chapter 8

Meme reference and a surprise in this chapter. Points go to who can figure out which one is the meme.

* * *

Before Mac could say another word though, Latias shouted something in Latios' ear, and the two flew off without any other notice.

"Where are they off to?" Mac asked as Latias disappeared through the trees.

"Oh, I don't know. Probably to have some alone time. But since they're gone, do you want to walk around the late Alto Mare Market?"

"Late? What time is it?"

"About half four."

Mac didn't see where all the time could have gone, but since there didn't seem much else to do, he agreed, Cubone mirroring his nod.

"Sure, might as well. Can I keep this?"

He held up the Pokedex, which Bianca dismissed with a wave of the hand.

"Course. I never use it, and you'll find it way more useful. It's registered to me, though, so if you see Officer Jenny make sure she doesn't check it."

"Officer Jenny?"

"Yeah? You know? Police woman? Wears a police hat?"

"How do I know if she's called Jenny?"

Bianca blinked at the odd prospect. All the police women were called Jenny. That was just how it was.

"Er, they're all called Jenny."

"What? Every policeman?"

"Every police woman. You really have been living under a rock, haven't you?"

While Mac was from a pit village in Yorkshire and the simile was partly accurate, it was still slightly insulting. It was a very fine - albeit smelly and unfriendly - rock he had lived under.

"Not fair. So, is it illegal for me to have this then, since it's yours?"

"Oh, no. Well, yes. But only technically. They get irate, but they don't arrest you or anything. Unless you've used it to do something illegal."

Mac was left in the dark as to what could be done illegally with the seemingly innocent red micro-computer.

"Hundred pokedollar Magikarp! One hundred pokedollar!"

Mac recognised the sounds of a market as they got close, Cubone still clinging silently to his shoulder. The weight was surprisingly okay to manage once Cubone was balanced right, and after the brief boat trip to the market, he'd seem to have mastered that art.

Bianca pulled out a purse from somewhere and handed Mac a series of notes, totalling 5000 pokedollars. Mac took it unsurely.

"Money? I can't take this too!"

Bianca shook her head and forced the notes into his hands.

"No, you can. We're loaded, and besides, you've come a long ways and suffered a lot to be here. You've earnt it."

Bianca also felt sorry for his fit earlier on, but she wasn't going to mention that.

"Five thousand!? Wait..."

Mac paused. He was in an Asian country where the currencies were probably messed up and hyper inflated, so perhaps five thousand pokedollars wasn't as much as he'd feared. A quick glance at the menu outside a restaurant quickly confirmed it: Unless a starter cost five hundred normal, it seemed like a hundred pokedollars equalled one US dollar. Which made sense; it was similar to the Japanese Yen.

Bianca led him to the closest stall, which was the man who was shouting about Magikarp. She grabbed Mac's wrist and looked him in the eyes.

"DO NOT, let this guy con you. You do not need, and do not want, a Magikarp."

The man noticed her and bellowed at her in his market-teller voice, attracting a tad more attention than he would have done if he'd have shot an orphaned child in the face while reciting the script of the latest SAW film backwards wearing a HAIL SATEN death metal shirt. In front of some nuns. On mothers day. At a charity event designed to raise money for those suffering from gunshot wounds.

"PRETTY LADY! I TRUST YOU SHALL NOT BE SMELLING MY WEARS TODAY?!"

As - what Bianca felt like - the entire market square looked at her with scorn, she facepalmed and dragged Mac deeper into the market stalls and out of general public view as she explained in an embarrassed voice.

"That man, he is so annoying. But also, Latias sometimes wanders around here pretending to be me, and if she sees something she likes, she'll go closer and smell it. She must have visited that man's stall..."

Mac wasn't paying attention, too busy looking at the goods the market had to offer.

The market was set out in a series of eight rows, each of which had two sides. In the center of the rows was where the stall owners stood and traded items, and on the other side were the 'streets' where the buyers could wander down in between. The entire thing was constructed outside, out of make-shift marquees and tents, and each row had roughly ten stalls in it. The whole air reminded Mac of the Sunday markets his mum took him to at the seaside, except where those stalls sold tatty mobile phone covers, this one appeared to sell Pokemon accessories. And Altomare merchandise, which consisted of various figurines of Latias and Latios in various majestic and playful poses.

In amongst the babble of people, Bianca heard her name being called from a stall, and she pulled Mac towards it, having not actually let go of his wrist since the Magikarp stall. The couple ended up at a stall with sold artistic scenes of Altomare, though there were a few of Latias and Latios going too. The female stall owner greeted Bianca with a hug over the counter.

"Bianca! My star! We completely sold out of all your paintings! In minutes! I've waited decades to sell some, but yours? I say about half an hour, puff! Gone!"

Bianca blushed and chatted back.

"Oh, thanks! I, err...that's amazing! Totally! Thanks!"

"No, Thank you! You really will have to make more, this time! I'll pay you double, they'll still buy them! Say, who is this tall chap?"

Mac leaned down and waved as Bianca introduced him. The size difference was that immense - he was the tallest in the tents, by about fifteen centimeters and above the average by double that. Even though they were packed with people, it was no issue to see to the other side.

"Oh, him? This is, er...Mac. He's my...um...friend."

"An 'um' friend? Good choice! Anyways, queue is forming! Thanking again, see you later!" The teller shouted the last bit as Bianca walked off.

"Sorry about that Mac, that was someone I sell my art to. I sell it to her, then she sells it to the tourists. She's a great salesman, so I get more doing that than if I tried myself."

"I see..." He wasn't really paying attention, though. He was more interested in something he'd seen in an adjacent stall.

* * *

"Here! Feather! Here!"

Latias rummaged underneath her down with her snout and pulled out a red feather in her teeth, delicately moving it so the stem faced outwards. She then flew forward and stabbed the feather in between two sticks Latios had arranged on the branches of the tree.

"That," - Latias smiled as she flew back and admired the bright red feather - "Is a warning."

The warning feather stood its ground for all of five seconds, until the wind caught it and it span off its mounting point on the poorly constructed nest. Latias coo'd sadly as the feather drifted lazily to the ground.

"I don't get it...we're meant to be good at this. It's a NEST. We're BIRDS! This can't be that difficult."

Latios didn't want to get on Latias' nerves, but he had to correct her.

"We're not birds, that's a joke Bianca says. We're dragons. But still, we're copying everything the other nests do. Why isn't it working?"

Latios coo'd disappointedly as well. They'd copied every aspect of a nearby Pidgey nest, right down to the saliva-glue trick, and the nest didn't seem to be going well. Of course, they'd scaled the whole thing up: Since Pidgey were a fraction of Latias' size, Latios had gone and found twigs that were lots bigger than the one in the nest they'd tried learning from. Well, actually they'd ended up getting more like logs than twigs, but Latios reasoned that, surely, the principles were the same...

"The pebbles are nice, but I don't think we need those, either." Latios picked up a rock that was laying on a branch in his teeth. Latias squealed at him and he dropped it back.

"No! No! It's standing in for an egg!"  
"Well, it's a very small egg."  
"Well, we need to fit two in here. Us on the outside, eggs in the middle!"  
"But our eggs are bigger than those rocks!"

Latias sighed and set down in the tree, wings drooping, face frowning, clearly fed up.

"Well, it was a start."

Latios laid down opposite her and nuzzled her folded-in arm, as she did the same.

"It's difficult, though that's the point, right?"  
"I guess. We could ask some of the other flying types for help, too."

Latios smiled. It would be nice, after all. Most of the ones that knew they existed stayed away, but there was nothing wrong with asking a professional.

"Yeah, I guess. Should we wait at one of their nests? Instead of going out and chasing one?"

"Yeah. Let's just have a nap, and then go."

It would be easier if they waited for one than if they went and chased one, since they were less likely to run away. That, and it set the level of trust that they hadn't just taken what they wanted from the nest.

* * *

"Excuse me, Sir! You have to pay for that!"

Mac swivelled round to look at the store owner that he'd just left.

"Me?"

"I don't see anyone else walking off with one of my scarves."

Mac looked worried and glanced for Bianca, but she'd wondered off. He hadn't taken anything from the stall, but what if it was a reuse or some other sly trick to con him?

He took three paces back anyway, ducking down to the man at the stall.

"I'm...I'm sorry but...I don't have any of your scarves. They're nice, but I haven't taken one?"

The man raised an eyebrow and cast his head at Cubone.

"And I presume your little friend paid for his own scarf?"

Mac was about to ask exactly which friend he was on about, but remembered Cubone at the last second. Mac turned his head to see Cubone's neck roughly swathed in a scarf that matched the ones hanging from the top of the tent. Mac turned back, cheeks red with embarrassment.

"Oh! I am SO sorry, I didn't realise he'd taken it! I can't take it off him now, how much is it?"

The teller dropped his stroppy one once he realised that Mac was genuinely not planning on stealing anything.

"Thought you were a bit tall for a thief. For you, that scarf is 1K pokedollars."

Mac leaned into his pocket and pulled out the notes that Bianca had given him, stopping to inspect them to see what the man wanted. 1K pokedollars? Wonky pokedollars? Did he want one thousand? One hundred thousand? One hundred?

"Are you okay there? Maths not your strong point?"

Mac had been standing a bit too long, so he settled on passing the man two 500 pokedollar notes and watching his reaction. The man took them without a second glance, following it up with a polite note.

"Don't see too many Cubone's around here. He yours?"

Mac looked at Cubone and he nodded, giving Mac a hug around the head too.

"Yeah, He's mine."

"Got a ball?"

"Er...nope."

The man smiled.

"Well, that's nice. If you ever want to get him one though, your best bet in this market is Phil. Got a sign, Phil's Pokeballs. If you ever want one, Phil's your guy."

Mac frowned and looked at Cubone.

"Thanks, but I'll let him decide if he wants a ball. We'll take a look, though. You never know."

"Smart lad. Thanks again!"

Mac walked off down the market, but he tried engaging Cubone in conversation as they passed a place that sold hand-crafted Alto Mare gym badge holders.

"Do you want a Pokeball, Cubone?"

Cubone shook his head and Mac nodded in agreement.

"Didn't think so. Can we at least go and look at them?"

Mac was genuinely interested in the red and white devices, and wanted to know how they worked, and the market stall seemed perfect: the person who made them would probably be there selling them, and free to answer questions. He could finally nail down how they got bigger and smaller!

Cubone shrugged, giving an 'if you must' grumble to go with it. Mac instantly sped up his pace and started looking around for the stall.

* * *

"How long is that now?"

"About fifteen seconds, Latias."

"He's taking forever."

"Be patient."

"But we want help now!"

Latios looked at his mate and gave her a 'you're kidding me' face; ears flat, one eye more open than the other.

"What? I'm just saying!"

Latils sighed and stared at the Tailow nest. They'd chosen the nest they were closest to, but also just happened to have three small Tailow eggs nested in the center. The eggs pretty much guaranteed that whoever owned them would be back soon. Mother's didn't leave their eggs for long, and if the fathers stayed then they were usually even more protective than the mothers. This particular nest, Latios had identified from the smell, belonged to a male Tailow that had been gone for about ten minutes. He could also detect hints of aggressiveness in the scent, but there wasn't much that could be done about that.

Latias' snout was almost touching the nest, and her eyes were looking over it's rim at the eggs.

"What do you think they are?"

"I don't know. Tomorrow's breakfast?"

Latias giggled for a few seconds, then took out a claw and shoved Latios in the side.

"We don't eat these ones!"

As well as collecting berries, Latias also brought back eggs from time to time. They contained lots of protein, and were perfect for breakfast, but there wasn't any point in eating Tailow eggs. There weren't enough in the garden, and Latias didn't like the noise they made.

Latios wobbled on the branch and shifted his wings to balance better, saving himself from falling from the tree.

Just as Latios was about to provide a witty remark back, they heard a cawing above, the owner of the nest.

"Up here! That's where your fights at!"

The Tailow had obviously shouted to distract the two dragons from its nest, and it had the desired effect. Both Latias and Latios rolled their eyes upwards to see an angry Tailow heading for Latias' snout, doing an attack which looked like a relatively simple 'Peck'.

Because Latias' eyes were on top of her snout, she didn't need to move her head at all, and so had plenty of time to dodge, which she did at the last second, staying on the branch but moving her neck so the Tailow had it's beak aiming at the branch underneath, too late to do anything about it.

With a 'thunk', the bird dived into the tree, beak first.

"Are you okay?"

The bird had chosen the worst place to dive into, and it's beak was now caught in a split of the branch, unable to escape. It ended up flapping it's wings at the dragons, trying to whip up a gust, but the only effect that had was to make Latias squint a bit to get the breeze from her eyes. The Tailow stopped after it took a second to understand what Latias said, and the fact they weren't trying to eat him while he was vulnerable.

"Wait, help me?"

Latias smiled and psychiced him out of the branch, to the Tailows surprise. He hopped into the nest and held his wings over the eggs, still partially unsure.

"Well, actually, we need your help."

The Tailow looked confused, but shifted his gaze to a so far silent Latios. Perhaps the blue Eon was planning something.

"Well...er...what do you need MY help with?"

Latios decided to speak, seeing as the bird was clearly frightened.

"Me and my mate want to build a nest, but we don't know how. Nothing stays together and it keeps falling apart. We were thinking you could give us some pointers?"

The Tailow thought for a minute. On one hand, the dragons were probably able to richly reward him. On the other, teaching them would be difficult because they were so big, and it would mean leaving his own nest and eggs alone for the entire day.

"What's in it for me? I'd have to leave my eggs all day to do that..."

Latias looked at Latios and then back.

"You can have one feather from each of us. And you can come back here to check on the eggs every time that bell rings. Where we want our nest isn't far from here anyway."

The Tailow thought about it for a few seconds. Dragon feathers would be excellent for the nest, as well as the red color warding off predators, the scent would probably be quite attractive to a mate! Then again...

"One red feather and some food." There wasn't really a need for two feathers, and the food would make up from the time lost from foraging because he was helping them.

Latias nodded, flying up and reaching under her wing with her snout, for a feather from her side. She picked a random one and gave it to the comparatively tiny Tailow, who took it by then stem and hopped around the nest a bit, before jamming it on one side facing upwards, patting around the base until he was sure it was stuck fast.

"Okay, so. Where's this nest?"

Latios and Latias flew up and towards the nest site at a reduced speed, as the Tailow flew in between, chirping and asking all kinds of questions as to what it was like being a legendary.

"How old are you guys?"

"We're twins. About a hundred years old."

"Whoa...what's it like having arms?"

Latias pulled out a paw and patted her underside with it for no reason, answering the question at the same time.

"I don't know...what's it like having feet?"

The Tailow thought, then flew behind the Eons to confirm the fact that they didn't actually have feet, or indeed, legs.

"Oh, wow. I thought you'd have legs or something. You've got kind-of feet though."

The way he said 'you' implied it was Latias.

"How do you hop then?"

"We don't. Fly everywhere."

"So, what is your footprint in the human Pokedex? I saw one once and it shows the human a picture of your footprint."

Latios took that one as they reached the tree they were planning on having the nest.

"They use our paws. Latias sometimes makes a print when they're building something and they have that concrete stuff, so it dries with a paw print in it that they don't recognise. Not on purpose, she's just clumsy, but they put that one in the Pokedex."

* * *

Mac had just located the Pokeball stall, when he heard yet another voice call for him. This time it was a whisper.

"Hey, you, kid. Yeah, the tall one."

Mac looked down and to his side, but the person there wasn't looking at him. Mac looked back up, and the voice was back.

"Are you good with that Pokemon?"

Mac couldn't fathom where the voice was coming from, but instinct told him it probably wasn't a good idea to converse with it.

"Kid! Don't walk off! We've got a preposition you might like!"

Mac turned to face the voice again, but no one was stood there. In fact, the voice was loud enough for others to hear, so why weren't they? It was almost like someone was pointing a very directional loudspeaker at him.

"Ah, you've found us."

Mac had indeed.

The market was set up in a square that was also bordered by coffee shops and cafes. Sat outside one was three people on a round table for four, all wearing cliché spy-hat fedoras. Make that two people and a rather odd looking cat. The man had a mobile phone to his ear, and the woman was being very inconspicuous about pointing a black box in Mac's direction.

Mac looked at Cubone.

"What do you think?"

Cubone shrugged. He had no idea.

Mac was tempted to walk off and ignore the suspicious individuals, but if he did and they tried following him, odds were that wouldn't end well for him. If he confronted them out in the open, however, he could always kick up a fuss and have the police called.

Mac left the market and walked over to the coffee shop, taking the spare seat at the table where the suspicious people were, without making a sound. The man hung up his phone and turned to Mac.

"So, you're interested in our offer?"

Mac leaned back and crossed his arms, determined to look confident despite the fact he had no clue what was going on. Perhaps they were criminals and he could bust open one of their secretive operations...

"Perhaps you could give me a few more details, first."

The man nodded and the woman pulled out a photo. It was a laminated copy of a painting. More accurately, one of Bianca's paintings of Latios.

"I assume you know who this is?"

As Mac answered and hoped Cubone wouldn't give the game away, he reached into his pocket and pressed the home button on his phone three times, hoping that the app still worked. The phone would now record everything. Hopefully.

"Er...that's Latias, isn't it?"

The woman frowned. Her voice sounded like the hipitemy of sarcasm and patronising.

"Nice try, sweety chops, but that's not the right answer and you know it. We can't have you in on this operation unless you're willing to cooperate. We've been following you, so you better start telling the truth. New question. Who painted this picture?"

They had been following him?

"Bianca, Lorenzo's daughter."

The woman smiled, and handed Mac the laminated picture. He immediately - but covertly - checked the back. Sure enough, it had a red 'R' laminated in on the bottom left.

The red R meant Team Rocket, Bianca had said. Which were the same people who kidnapped Latias and took her to England. Which were also, by extension, the same people Mac stole her back off. And it also meant they were therefore the secret unit of the country who's military he had ran away from to avoid being killed. Which meant that this could be an elaborate plot to kill him.

Jessie - for of course it was her - smiled when she saw Mac's face falter. They were relying on him knowing who they were, but him trying not to give it away. As long as he thought he held all the cards, they would have him under their thumb.

"Very good, sugar muffin. And I believe you're quite well acquainted with her?"

"Somewhat."

"Just as we thought. Now, do you know what happened to the last person she was 'well acquainted' with?"

Mac gulped. Bianca hadn't told him anything about her past, really, and he had a feeling he'd just dipped his toe into an ocean of piranhas.

"No, I don't."

"Neither do we. He just, disappeared!"

She made a sparkling gesture with her hands, then stared at Mac, waiting for him to speak.

Mac didn't know what to do. He was in a public square, out in the open, but that didn't mean it was safe, at all. The couple were clearly professionals, and he'd met their type before. Just because they couldn't do anything now, didn't mean they couldn't arrange an accident later. Mac decided to turn the tables and make THEM feel like THEY were holding all the cards. And hope they weren't expecting it.

"So let's get this out in the open, you're part of Team Rocket. They've captured Latias once before but it didn't go well and I helped her escape, thereby making her and her owner befriend me upon my arrival here. You want me to use this to your advantage and help you capture Latios, in return for...? What?"

James answered this one without hesitating, which made Mac's heart sink lower. It was exactly what they were expecting him to do.

"Safe passage and complete immunity back in sunny old England."

Mac kept his face flat and emotionless.

"But what if I like it here? Who says I want to go back?" Aside from actually liking Altomare, Mac knew that they wouldn't follow up with their 'safe passage' promise. It would be sentencing to execution, yet again.

"We do." It was clear what that meant: you're doing what we say and then coming back with us, or we'll find a way to make you regret that you didn't.

Mac had no intention of going along with their plan, but he dropped his face to look defeated.

"I guess I don't have a choice, then. Deal"

James and Jessie smiled.

"Excellent. You may go now, we'll be in touch. Marc Simmons, welcome to the British Military Intelligence."

Mac felt like he should give them a handshake, but instead he got up and left without a word, disappearing back into the market with a queasy feeling in his stomach.

Less than fifteen meters away, Bianca was looking through food for the dragons. Specifically, which fish to get them.

On one hand, Latias really liked tuna. On the other, Latios really liked salmon. Both of them liked cod, but not as much as they liked salmon/tuna respectively. Buying one but not the other would lead to an argument, and buying none would lead to constant nagging. Bianca sighed when she realised that - yet again - buying all of them would probably be the best bet.

"Two kilos of Tuna, two kilos of salmon and two kilos of cod, please?"

The stall owner smiled and reached into the ice, picking up a fish and weighing it, putting it in a bag and then repeating it until the correct weight was achieved. Bianca easily accounted for a third of his business when then market was on, and he sometimes wondered if something fishy was going on (hahaha). Aside from the fact that it should be impossible for her to consume it that quickly, the prices he offered weren't exactly cheap. The money she'd handed him over the years didn't bare thinking about.

The stall keeper eventually managed to package up six kilograms of meat into three double-bags, and Bianca handed him the exact fee as he handed her the bags.

As she took them, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Do you need help with those?"

She turned around and saw Mac, who looked about fifty shades paler than he normally was.

"No, I'm fine thanks, but are you okay? You don't look too well? Cubone?"

Cubone nodded his head and Mac nervously looked around as he muttered to Bianca. The man and woman appeared to have gone, and he'd wandered around the market randomly for ages before coming to Bianca, but being tall would have made it difficult for someone to loose track of him.

"Team Rocket were here. They've tried bribing me to help them in return for a trip home."

Bianca put her hand over her mouth and gasped.

"No. No. No no no. They were gone. It can't be."

Mac nodded.

She took a few seconds, then composed herself.

"Right. With me. I know somewhere they won't, where we can talk."

* * *

Bianca practically barged down the door of Tony's ice cream parlor and dragged Mac with her. The shop was thankfully empty.

"Bianca! It's been a while! Is everything okay?"

Bianca was briskly marching Mac to the back of the shop.

"Not really. In fact, things are not okay by the remotest of definitions. Can we borrow your garden? And dim the front window."

The question was only asked out of politeness, as she'd already opened the door and was stepping over the threshold.

"Well, sure. Would you like some food?"

He followed the two teens out, frowning with concern for his friend. Bianca dropped the anger in her voice slightly when she realised how difficult she was being.

"Er...two oran berry smoothies. Please."

Tony nodded and went back behind the door to make the smoothies. Bianca and Mac both took a seat at a table, and Bianca gave the garden a once-around before she started.

"Okay. Right. You said it was team Rocket. Are you sure?"

Mac and Cubone both nodded.

"Yep. They had the red 'R' on a photo of Latios."

"And what did they say?"

It was Mac's turn to look nervous as he spilled the beans.

"They know I'm not from here, and they think I'll defect to them if I think it'll get me back home. And it sounds like they'll try and kill me again if I don't."

"Did they say that?"

"Nope, but these guys are professionals. They don't leave loose ends."

"Shit."

Mac heard the curse and couldn't help but smile.

"So you do swear!"

Mac hadn't actually heard a curse pass Bianca's lips before, so actually hearing one reminded him that perhaps the world he'd entered wasn't completely mad. Bianca didn't see the delightful side.

"I swear when we're in big trouble, which this is..."

Bianca paused, looking at Mac, almost staring right through him as she thought about what could be done. They couldn't tell the police because they'd want to know where Mac came from and that'd reveal the secret garden and the Eons, they couldn't do nothing because Team Rocket knew where they were, and they couldn't let Mac work with them, for obvious reasons.

Bianca suddenly let out a wail and collapsed onto the table, covering her head with her hands.

"THIS ISN'T FAIR! WHY CAN'T THEY JUST LEAVE US ALONE!"

Which was the worst time for Tony to walk out brandishing two sundae glasses filled with orange mixture. He gave Mac a quizzical look and froze in the doorway when he saw the teenager, but Mac gave him a head-gesture and Tony wandered over.

"Bianca, if something's wrong, you can tell me. A problem shared is a problem halved?"

Bianca didn't bring her head up from the table, so Mac explained, pointing to a chair.

"It's a long story..."

Mac went over the details, stopping for a sip of sorbet every soften and Bianca slowly started to pull herself together. By the time Mac got to the events in the square, she too was sipping her drink.

"...and here we are, talking now."

Tony looked like he wasn't sure whether to believe Mac or not.

"That's very...big."

"Big?"

"Well, if what you're saying is true, there's a lot more to earth and society than I thought."

"Well...there is."

"I guess so. Well, you two sure are in a pickle. Why are you here now, then?"

Mac's eyes lit up when he realised WHY they were here. It was blatantly obvious. They weren't here to chat or worry.

"Tony? That's your name?"

"Uh-hu."

"Well, then Tony. We're here to make a plan..."

* * *

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUNNNNN! Okay, hand's up who saw that coming? Well?


	9. Chapter 9

The meme, for those that were wondering, was the one-pound-fish/magikarp guy. It's more of an English meme, though so I'll excuse you for not knowing it.

* * *

"Okay, so I was following you, right until the bit where you do something with the computer."

Tony scratched his white head hair as he looked at the couple. Mac and Bianca had sat for over an hour, thinking up and then striking off ideas that could help. Finally, they'd ran through the plan with Tony. If he didn't understand it, then neither would Team Rocket.

"Excellent. So they won't be expecting that." Bianca grinned. The plan was by no means foolproof, but if it worked, Team Rocket would be convinced to leave them alone.

"And you think the Eons will go along with it?"

"Well, they don't really have a choice."

"So, when do we put it into place?"

"They won't be expecting us to act so soon. I'll do my bit now, the first bit of phase one, you tell Lorenzo and the others."

Mac and Bianca both finished the rest of their oran shakes in one gulp, and put the glass back down on the table. The combined noise sounded like they'd slammed the glasses. Bianca looked startled, then grew fidgety.

"Thanks for everything you're doing for us, Mac. I started that drink feeling that it was all over...but now...you helping us just like that...without a thought for yourself...it's really..."

There was an odd silence. It went on for a second longer. Then Bianca did the completely unexpected, and pulled Mac's face across the table to meet hers in a lip-lock. That lasted slightly longer than the silence, then she broke that off too. Then Bianca plucked Cubone from Mac's shoulder and ran off without another word, out of the garden, out of the shop and smiling all the way home.

Tony was left with Mac in the garden and offered his opinion.

"I still don't know who you are, but I reckon you're in, there, lad."

Mac looked back at him with a cross between a worried glance and a cheeky grin.

"She's going to be gutted when she finds out I'm not that type."

* * *

It hadn't taken as long to track down the secret agents as Mac thought it would. Working on the principle that they wanted a house that was close as it could be without being suspicious, as well as one that was close enough to the market and other places Bianca frequented, he'd figured out the streets they would most likely be walking down, and meandered around them himself, subtlety changing his appearance from time to time to look less suspicious.

He'd spotted their odd looking cat first, and it appeared they were heading home, which was almost too perfect for Mac to believe. Wary of a trap, Mac stayed a few paces behind them in the growing evening crowds, hoping and praying that they wouldn't get on a boat. Thankfully, they didn't, and soon the entire party had walked to the door of a completely average looking house.

Though average looking, the house was perfect for their purpose: no garden, closed on all sides, only one visible access route - which didn't appear to be crowded - three stories and very few windows.  
Mac stood at the doorway of another house two doors down and pretended to fumble for his keys, as he strained to hear their conversation.

"I say Italian."

"ITALIAN!? THAT'S ALL WEVE HAD FOR THE PAST WEEK IN THIS STUPID PLACE!"

Clearly they weren't as professional when they weren't working.

"Whatever. I'm not cooking, we can go to a restaurant that serves whatever we want. I'm thinking seafood."

"Meowth!"

There was a slam as the door shut, and Mac could hardly believe his luck. The trio had practically underlined the fact that they wouldn't be in the house while they had dinner! He could snoop around in there for a good hour or so before they would even come back. More if he found a way to delay the meal.

Since the street had a dead-end, Mac took a seat at a cafe opposite where the street came out, ordered a coffee and a slice of cake, and waited for the trio to walk around the corner. His original idea had been to just find out where they lived, but since that hadn't taken as long as he'd thought and the agents had said they would be out of the house, there really was no better time to implement the stage two of phase one.

Who he really could have done with right now, was Cubone. Not just for whatever Pokemon-y stuff he could do, but also for the - mostly one-sided albeit - conversation. Instead, Mac looked around the cafe at the other tables. Every table that was occupied had at least one Pokemon. Some were sitting down, some were on their owners shoulders, and the really small ones were curled up on the tables themselves.

Mac reached for the Pokedex he still had in his pocket and scanned the one closest. The machine started to read the entry, not too loud but loud enough for Mac to hear, almost like is had measured the ambient sound and chosen the right volume setting.

"Eevee, the Evolution Pokémon. Eevee is a unique Pokémon that can adapt to its environment by changing its form and abilities when evolving."

Mac had been following the entry, but when it got to the last word his thought train derailed. Evolving? The thing evolved? In it's lifetime?

The word 'evolved' was underlined and blue coloured, like a Wikipedia link, so Mac pressed it with his finger, and the device loaded up a page on evolution. It didn't leave Mac any less confused. He didn't have time to ponder it some more, however, because his coffee and cake had arrived. Carrot cake and standard coffee. He didn't like coffee, particularly, but it came with a useful item. Mac pocketed the stirrer once the waiter walked off.

Mac tucked in and looked around some more at all the other Pokemon that were in the cafe. Another one which caught his eye was sat on the table, having scraps of food thrown to it. It was blue, looked kind of like a baby alligator, but fatter and able to stand up and sit down. He scanned it with the Pokedex, and it identified it as a Totodile.

The Totodile - as did a lot of other Pokemon at the café - had a plastic cup with a lid and a straw that it was occasionally sipping from. A larger look around indicated why: on a chalk sign on the doorway, the cafés offer was outlined;

"Pokemon have drinks on the house!"

Mac smirked as he realised that this would seem perfectly okay to the small Totodile or Eevee, but the very large and very tall thing that had flames coming out of it's back - The Pokedex called it a Typhlosion - probably found it a bit insulting to be given a small, quarter of a liter plastic cup with a straw. Mac watched as it's owner pulled a blue metal cylinder out of their bag, unscrewed off the top, and passed it to the fire-bear Pokemon. The Typhlosion took the canteen and (through what looked like very well practised movements) took a drink from it.

It had been about ten minutes since Mac had finished his cake, when around the corner walked two people and a cat. The woman had purple hair which was set back an impossible length, and the man had blue hair that wasn't styled in any particular way. It was the same hairstyles and colors that had been hidden under fedoras earlier in the day. If the agents were trying to not stand out, it wasn't working particularly well. There were a lot of crazy hairstyles in Alto Mare, granted, but they still looked outlandish to Mac.

The couple and cat walked past Mac without batting an eyelid, talking amongst themselves. The café was too noisy and they were too far away for Mac to know what they were saying, not that it mattered. The house was now empty, and that was all that mattered.

Mac got up and left the café, and made his way to the house that he'd seen the agents enter half an hour ago. It was - unsurprisingly - locked, as were the windows. But that wasn't the only way in, Mac remembered. He'd discussed with Bianca, and she said that most houses had their garden area on the roof. Which meant there was also an entrance on the roof.

Mac tried to arrange himself as innocently as possible, before knocking on the next door neighbors house. A woman answered after a few seconds.

"Hello? Can I help you?"

"Um, yeah...my mum told me to go home and get her purse, but I forgot my key. We keep a spare on the roof though. Could I hop over your garden fence please so I can get my mums purse so she can pay for our dinner?"

The woman frowned.

"Well, I would, it's just...doesn't your mum have a key?"

"She's on the opposite side of the island and I had to take a boat to get here. Now I don't have enough money to get a boat back.

The woman stopped frowning a bit.

"Oh, right. Come in then, I guess you can just hop over the wall."

"Thanks."

The lady led Mac up three flights of stairs, ending with a door to the roof of the house.

"You keep a key on the top door?"

"Yeah. It's safer than hiding one on the ground floor."

"That's actually a good idea. There you go. Do you need a boost?"

The brick wall was about 2 meters high, but Mac had climbed harder.

"It's okay, I got it. Thank you! Thanks so much!"

In three bounds, Mac was up and over the wall, having apparently landed in an alternative world.

The garden he had just left had been filled with nice smelling flowers, wooden benches and even had a few small Pokemon flying around. This one was the exact opposite. It was filled with satellite dishes, radio antenna, signal amplifiers and steel. From random and natural, to orderly and industrial.

The various electrical things were overlayed on an aluminium scaffold above the roof of the building, and the door to the inside was unmodified. Mac made a note of the kind of antennas that were being used as he walked carefully over to the door. One antenna in particular caught his eye. The length of any antenna matched the frequency it was made to transmit on, and Mac realised with a geekish glee that one of the aerials was made for transmitting an LTE (A/N: That's 4G to our European viewers) telecoms signal.

He checked his phone, but it still had no signal. Clearly something that had to be investigated, though. It would certainly make the plan easier.

Mac made it to the door, and was overjoyed when he found the lock to be unmodified. Unlike the front door lock, which would have had around 8 tumblers, the roof door contained only three in order to keep it practical After all, the only way onto the roof would be via another locked door. Why did this lock need to be secure?

Mac smiled as he pulled out the coffee stirrer from the shop and snapped the end off, exposing flat plastic. He inserted it into the lock and started to feel for the tumblers. Picking locks was actually easier than a lot of people made out, he had learnt. All you needed was a flat piece of metal or plastic, insert it into the keyhole and 'feel' around for the tumblers inside. Once you felt a click, one had ticked into the right place and you just had to keep it there, wither by keeping the pick still or adding force to the lock. A process which got exponentially difficult as the number of tumblers increased, but was pretty easy when there was only three.

One pull of the handle later, and Mac was inside. Gut instinct - as well as some tell-tale cables - told him that what he was looking for would be on the top floor, and he was proved right. One flight of stairs down from the roof door, Mac found his prize.

An entire level was knocked through so it ran the entire length and width of the house, and it contained almost everything Mac needed to execute this stage of the plan. Mac didn't flip on the lights, because the light from the row of left-on computer monitors was substantial enough to see the room.

On the wall opposite the bank of computer monitors was various weapons, ranging from a small PK9 pistol, to a tranquillizer gun and even a rocket launcher. Underneath each weapon was a box which Mac could only guess was filled with ammunition. The weapons took up almost an entire wall, except at the end, where about a meter was taken up with rows of Poke Balls stacked neatly in slots fixed to the wall.

Clearly, this was a small Team Rocket HQ away from HQ. They were in this - or had been in this - for the long-haul.

The wall with the stairs on was mostly empty, but under the stairs, where the cables from the roof had sunk down to, were large metal boxes with caution signs on them, warning of the high voltages and VHF radiation. So those were the supply boxes for the impressive array of communications equipment on the roof.

Then there was the wall with the computers on, which Mac resolved to inspect after he'd done the first part of the plan. The remaining wall the furthest from the stairs, and a table in the middle, seemed to be dedicated to planning, as they were both covered with pictures of Latios and Latias, as well as military issue secure document folders.

Mac's first priority was to neutralize their main weapon: Mac and Bianca had established that team rocket wanted their Eon alive, so if they were going to use a weapon, it was probably going to be the tranquillizer gun.

Mac didn't know how the gun worked entirely, but he did know that the round delivered its load by the force of it's delivery depressing a plunger and injecting the anaesthetic. This also - theoretically - made it possible to change the liquid that was in the round without rendering it unusable.

Mac opened the box of ammunition and found it two thirds empty, with about twelve rounds remaining. Plenty enough for what he had in mind.

He noted the direction they were facing, before picking them up and putting them in the pocket he formed in his shirt by pulling the bottom outwards. Next, he carefully took them downstairs and into the kitchen. His idea required only three things, two of which were clearly visible. A precautious search later located the other.

Five minutes later, and the darts were being taken upstairs again, the kitchen left like nothing ever happened. The darts, too, looked unmodified, but that wasn't the case.

The darts now contained a home-made saline solution, a mixture of salt and water, instead of a scientifically brewed dopamine compound. The saline was completely biologically neutral: injecting it into the body would cause absolutely nothing to happen. Which it was very important DID happen.

Mac checked the dart gun was empty, and replaced all the darts in the box as he'd removed them. Next, he turned his attention to the computers. Although Mac could see 12 screens, he only could see 4 actual towers. Each tower was helpfully labelled: LOCAL, PLAN, INV, and the last one - labelled COMMS - had thick black leads running to the junction boxes on the wall. The computer was already booted up, though it was on a screensaver, so Mac wiggled the mouse. The 3 closest screens flashed and refreshed, then displayed a single message in red on a black background.

"PLEASE ENTER YOUR QAP"

The system was the same military one Mac had used at work. If you left your computer, you had half an hour to return before you were locked out and had to use your random 16 character password. Inside that half and hour, you just needed to enter a quick access password you could set yourself.

Mac looked at the keyboard at an angle for inspiration. The most worn keys would be the most typed letters, and the password would be the most typed thing. Mac hummed as he looked at the worn keys. The 'W' key was way more worn than it had any right to be, as was the 'M'. All the vowel keys were worn down, too, but Mac discounted them as they were normally the most worn down anyway. A flash of inspiration was what gave Mac the answer. that, and the fact they had a pet cat thing.

With a smile, Mac pressed five keys.

ENTER

The screens refreshed again, and when they stabilised this time, Mac was greeted by a Windows CE desktop. Mac flicked with curiosity through the installed programs.

Surprisingly, the machine was already loaded with many of the tools that Mac had used in his day jobs. But first, he opened command prompt and typed out a command.

\\COMMS\Windows\System32\ ping -r -a -j -s 100

An enter press later, and the information was sent. A few seconds later, it was returned, along with a list of all the places it had visited along the way.

Pinged [] with 32 bytes of data. Approximate round trip time 7ms.

Not only had Mac found a connection to the outside world, it appeared to be faster than fiber optic. A check of the trace log indicated no firewall. However he was getting to the internet, it wasn't being monitored. The computer was acting as its own ISP. Very dodgy.

Dodgy as it was, it was what Mac needed. Happy with the computer's internet connection, Mac set about trying to get it channelling to his phone. The blue haired agent had been using his phone when they'd first greeted Mac, so it made sense that it was possible, and the LTE antenna on the roof only added to that.

About a quarter of an hour later, Mac managed to get the Google homepage to pop up on his smartphone. It wasn't legal, or even permanent, but it had what he needed. He checked one more feature, then set about ensuring that the workstation was left as he'd found it, from removing the system logs, right down to the position of the mouse cursor on the table. Thirty seconds after he'd touched it, the screensaver activated.

Finally, Mac walked over to the planning table in the center of the room. On it was a large sheet of A2 paper, the same piece of paper that the team had used to jot down ideas on. While it didn't tell Mac what their actual plan was, it gave him an insight into their thought processes. It appeared that they didn't have many. Their shopping list even made an appearance on the sheet, and scribbled in the corner was "Tacos?" followed by "good idea!".

Perhaps, Mac pondered, all the agents that MI6 couldn't use - because the were too thick - but couldn't eliminate either, got sent to this place so they could screw up outside of the world's eye. That certainly would explain a lot.

Mac glanced along the remaining surfaces for a hint to their plan, but they either hadn't formed it yet, or it was stored on a computer, and he wasn't going to root through the remaining three just to find something that might not be there anyway. Besides, they had already deduced a large amount of what their plan was going to be. The only articles Mac found that might have interested him was a file on Latios, a file on Latias and Mac's own personal file. All three were in military folders which weren't supposed to have their contents labelled on the outside, only a reference number which had to be cross-checked, but at one point one of the agents had written the names on them in blue marker pen. It was almost enough for Mac to laugh. They were up against people with brain damage.

"Brain damage and a rocket launcher" Mac's common sense butted in as he saw the weapon on the wall. It unnerved him, and part of him wanted to neutralise that as well, but it was explosive and Mac hadn't a clue on how he'd go about it.

Job done, Mac made sure everything was as he'd left it, then went to the ground floor. The door had a yale lock in replacement of the one which was normally on the door. While that made it impossible for Mac to pick from the outside, on the inside it required just the turn of the lever.

Mac stepped out into the street and closed the door behind himself, internally celebrating.

* * *

Lorenzo was still struggling to come to terms with what Bianca had said. If he was getting this right, not only had Mac been threatened by Team Rocket, but they'd come up with a plan to fight back! Against a multinational criminal organisation! It was insurmountably dangerous!

"No, Bianca. I appreciate you wanting to get back at them, but you're only seventeen. It's insurmountably dangerous!"

Bianca was taller than Lorenzo, and she looked down on the old man. Latias and Latios were flying either side of him, facing inwards. Deep down, both dragons actually thought it was a decent plan. On the surface, both were hungry. It didn't look like they were being fed soon either, as Bianca started wagging her finger.

"I thought you'd say that. Mac's already gone to do the first bit."

Lorenzo took a steep breath in. Mac had..?

"What? You're telling me that he's wandering around town now? Following two people who threatened to kill him!?"

When he put it like that, Bianca realized that it perhaps wasn't as good as an idea as she thought at the time.

"Um...yeah."

Lorenzo was lost for words, and since Bianca didn't seem to want to talk either, Latios took it upon himself to break the silence.

"Lorenzo? Hungry?"

"What?"

Latios butted Lorenzo's shoulder and repeated himself.

"Hungry, Lorenzo. Food. Hungry. Food." Latias joined in too, and soon Lorenzo was surrounded by hungry dragons.

"Food for me, too! Lorenzo! Food. Bianca's got fish!"

Lorenzo knew the tone they were using and sighed.

"Are you honestly telling me, that your friend is out stalking two possible murderers with no one to help him, and you're more fussed about eating?"

Latias cocked her head to the side, not seeing Lorenzo's point. Mac had fought off eight policeman with guns, using just a pole. He'd jumped out of an exploding plane. He'd tricked a guy in a suit. And guys who wore suits didn't normally get tricked easily.

"But I'm hungry! And Bianca brought food home!"

Lorenzo put his hands on his hips and Latias backed off. Lorenzo with his hands on his hips was a formidable thing.

"Bianca is going to give you one fish to share and then you're both going to go and find Mac and bring him back here NOW!"

Latias nodded at the fair deal and flew next to Bianca, headbutting the palm of her closest hand.

"Yeah, fine, I get the picture. Give me two seconds."

Bianca leaned over into the plastic bags of shopping she still had with her, pulling out the tub with cod in. The fish were completely intact, as in, their eyes and heads and skin and everything, and Bianca would skin and debone it if she was going to eat it. But the dragons preferred it with all the entrails, and she threw the cod into the air as it was from the tub. In a flash of completely unplanned synchronization, the two Lati met in the middle and bit the fish neatly in half, not a single salted drop hitting the carpet. Bianca watched as a few hundred pokedollars of fish disappeared down Latios' and Latias' necks in an instant.

Lorenzo waited a second before sternly addressing the dragons. They didn't like being interrupted while they were eating - which was to be expected - and they included the time it took the food to reach their stomachs via their long gullets in that time.

"Now, you two! Go and find Mac and bring him back here before he hurts himself!"

Latias gave Lorenzo a pleading look.

"You're not going to yell at him, are you?"

Latias hated when humans yelled. All it did was make people's auras bright red for no reason, and Lorenzo shouting wasn't a pretty sight at any rate.

"Latias, no more ifs or buts," - from Lorenzo's perspective it looked like she was asking for more food - "Now go and find Mac. Now!"

Latias cleared out of the living room, Latios in tow. Latios was a bit annoyed at Lorenzo for speaking to Latias like that, and he made sure his wing 'accidentally' clipped Lorenzo on the way past. Lorenzo shouted after him, stressed to the point of explosion.

"Less of the attitude, Latios! Just remember who paid for that fish!"

Latios had already turned invisible along with Latias and flown out of the front door by that point. He made sure to slam it closed with his tail fins, like Bianca did when she was angry.

Inside the house, Lorenzo cast a withering glance at Bianca.

"He gets that from you, you know..."

Bianca muttered back under her breath, but Lorenzo heard her anyway.

"What with all those similarities we have between us."

"LISTEN young lady! Right now, some boy from a place we don't know, is wandering around a town he doesn't know, filled with creatures he doesn't know, stalking two people he doesn't know, and they're capable of other things that he doesn't know. He only just learnt to use a boat this morning! What kind of frame of mind were you in to think it was okay to let him just wander off after two criminals!?"

"FIRSTLY, It wasn't my idea, it was Mac's. SECONDLY, I'm sick of running from team rocket. I just want them to leave us alone, don't you?"  
"Well, yes, but then the proper procedure is to call Officer Jen-"  
"Officer Jenny, I know. But what have they done? It wasn't Officer Jenny that got Latias back, was it?"  
"No, but that was-"  
"It wasn't Officer Jenny that was here, was it? When Latias was gone? When Latios wouldn't move? There was no one granddad! No One."

Lorenzo just looked at the carpet. It was odd, because unlike a normal argument where Bianca was blatantly wrong, here he found himself warming to what she was saying. It was true, after all.

"But MAC. Mac is someone who's there when it mattered! He didn't NEED to rescue Latias. Even then, he didn't NEED to help her back here. The same goes now, gramps. He doesn't NEED to go after team rocket, but he's going to. And when it turns out good like the last two things he didn't NEED to do, we'll know it was the right thing"

"But until then?"

"Until then, we go along with him. He's the best man for the job, and I don't think I could stop him if I tried."

* * *

"Is that Mac?"

"No."

"That's Mac?"

"Nope."

"THAT PERSON'S GOT THE SAME COLOR HAIR!"

"She does. Keep looking"

Latias kept looking as she flew upside down, a meter above the heads of the bustling tourist filled streets. Latios was flying the right way up.

"Why are you upside down?"

"I can see better. Try it."

Latios did a barrel roll (A/N: A barrel roll is not what you think. What most people think is a barrel roll is technically an aileron roll) but didn't see how it helped Latias. All it did was make the blood run from his head. Plus he didn't like the feeling of his stomach exposed to the open air. Granted, his eyes were facing downwards and he didn't have to crane his neck to see, but the efforts required weren't worth it.

"Clothes line!"

Latios shouted and pitched upwards, shout masked by the sound of the tourists below. Latias couldn't fly up, and went to go under the line instead, but a rouge item of clothing ruined this plan, wrapping around her snout before pinging off the line. To the tourists below it looked like a gust of wind had caught the poorly attached sheet.

"Latios! Can't see!"

This point was evident, as pretty soon Latias was flying with her wing scraping along a wall, unable to fly straight Latios dodged to the side and snapped the sheet off her with his teeth, dumping it once it was clear of her wings. The moment she could see again she started to fly straight. Though not for long.

"FOUND HIM!" Latios squealed at Latias, banking to turn into an alleyway with a lone figure walking out of it. Latias psychiced him as they hovered invisible slightly above.

"Mac, It's Latias! Me!"

Mac jolted, took a second, then whispered under his breath.

"Oh. Hello...you been looking for me?"

"Yeah, Lorenzo sent us."

"I thought he might. Listen, I've not only found out where they live, I've also done the second part of that plan. I guess Bianca's told you all?"

Latios psychiced him this time

"She told us everything. So, you've already done the thing with the sleepy gun? Bianca said that wasn't until next week!"

"Sleepy gun?"

"The one that makes you fall asleep when it shoots you."  
"The tranquillizer gun? Yep, that's now useless!"

Latias and Latios smiled and nuzzled each other when they heard that. With their main weapon down, team rocket would have a tougher time trying to tackle them.

"Still, Lorenzo says you've got to come back now."

"No problem. Latias, you tell him I'm on my way and that I've done stage two. Latios can help me back."

Mac heard a faint yip and felt a gust of wind as Latias set off.

"Left here." Latios absently sent as he watched Latias spiral up and around, orientating herself with and then flying to the garden.

Mac followed Latios' direction, and entered the hustle of people who'd stepped out in search of a restaurant to eat at. All the shops and restaurants were open, and Latios stopped his instruction as he passed one that contained something that caught his eye.

"Mac! Mac! Stop! Shop! Look!"

Latios was looking down to a thing that was resting on a stand outside the shop. It was circular wooden ring with metal disks spaced around it at regular intervals. He didn't know the name, but he knew Latias would find it cool. It was shiny, and the noise it made when people walked past sounded like rain on leaves, a sound that Latios himself found very relaxing.

Mac walked into the shop, but couldn't say anything as there were people stood around close to him. He just wore a puzzled look, and Latios gave more precise instructions.

"At the front. Outside. Stop. Left. Left. No, Left. My left. Left. other left, yep. down, down down down. That one. Second thing. Yeah! That! Buy it buy it buy it!"

The tambourine only cost 200 pokedollars, so mac shrugged his shoulders and wrestled some change from his pockets, paying for the instrument and walking out with it, feeling incredibly conspicuous the entire time.

Why had Latios made him buy such a bizzare item?


	10. Chapter 10

Well, Mac had a few lucky breaks in that last chapter. And not to ruin the surprise, but he has two more here. Not necessarily lucky, though.

* * *

The moment Mac got back in the house, he was surrounded. Lorenzo was stood hands on hips with Bianca stood next to him, hands behind her back. Latias showed less restraint, and flew up to him, licking his cheek. Latios also ended up materialised behind him, though he went for the tambourine in Mac's hand, grabbing it with his teeth while Mac pushed Latias away.

"Hey, hey. Thanks that's enough, now. Stop, I think Lorenzo wants a word with me."

Lorenzo stayed frowning on the outside, but on the inside he was already softening as Mac gently pushed Latias' snout away with the flat of his hand. He had to admit, Mac was nice with the dragons, and he was only trying to help. Then again, it was stupidly dangerous.

"Yes, Mac, I do want a word. Just a few, mind..."

Mac nodded as he looked down at Latios, who was still trying to get his teeth around the tambourine. Mac spoke to Lorenzo and moved the instrument to a better angle for Latios at the same time. Instantly, He got a better grip, and managed to take the instrument from Mac's hand.

"Sure, fire away."

Lorenzo nodded.

"Just what were you thinking?"

Good question, if not a bit blunt.

"What do you mean? I was thinking you guys had had enough with those Team Rocket people and that you'd want them to stop"

"Fair enough, but there are better ways to go about it then chasing after them yourself."

"If that's the case, how come they haven't been stopped before? How come Latias ended up in my house a few days ago? I'm pretty sure it was because someone didn't stop them the last time they tried kidnapping her."

Lorenzo looked slightly upset and Mac felt guilty, but his argument got the point accross. Lorenzo countered.

"Fair enough, but, be honest, what have you actually achieved from your excursion today? Was it worth the risks?"

Mac smiled and took a small bottle from his pocket, similar to the one Bianca had got the dragons tablets in earlier on. It contained a clear white liquid.

"This."

Mac saw both Lorenzo and Bianca's expression falter, whilst Latias flew up and tried smelling the bottle, but Mac urgently pushed her away again.

"What is that?"

Mac smiled and put the bottle back in his pocket.

"That, Lorenzo, was a drug called dopamine. Where I'm from it's used to put large mammals" - He stopped and smiled at Latias - "to sleep. Until half an hour ago, this was inside a dart that was loaded in a Team Rocket weapon."

Lorenzo raised an eyebrow and Bianca's eyes widened as she realised what Mac had done. Lorenzo didn't quite figure it out.

"Wait, so...how did you get that?"

Mac smiled.

"I broke into the Team Rocket base and disarmed their tranquilliser gun. How else?"

Bianca squealed and clapped, before running and hugging Latias around her midriff. Latias did a happy coo and turned her neck around to return the hug, but Lorenzo was still slow on the uptake.

"So...that means?"

"It means, they can shoot at Latias and Latios with that weapon all day, it won't work. Instead of tranquilliser I've filled it with saline. If they do get shot with it, absolutely nothing will happen."

Lorenzo had to admit, when Mac said it like that, the consequence certainly seemed worth the risk. While he tried to decide his opinion, Latios wheeled around Mac and shook the tambourine from side to side like it was a fish he'd just caught, making it produce the rustling noise. Latias' face lit up and she squealed.

"What is it? Where did you get it? It's so shiny! I want one!"

Bianca was asking the same questions.

"Okay, okay, time out a sec. Mac, where did Latios get that?"

Mac smiled as Latios continued to shake the instrument in the background.

"Oh, I got it for him. He took a liking to it as we went past a shop, and, well, I couldn't say no, could I? Second best decision of today, easily."

The last bit of his sentence was barely audible over Latias squealing again. Latios had tried giving her the tambourine, but had missed her mouth by a few inches. Instead of it exchanging hands - or rather, mouths - the disk ended up slipping over Latias' snout and falling down her neck.

"OH WOW, MY HEAD FITS THROUGH IT!"

Closely followed by,

"All the others are going to be so jealous!"

She flew up so her wing would go over Bianca's head, then flew to the mirror that was just behind her to stare at the tambourine in place. She liked the result. The red dragon looking back was admiring the disk too, and with good reason. The metal disks reflected the light from above and made a twinkling that - in Latias' opinion - was highly attractive. Eye catching. Then there was the noise: a soft metallic jangle followed her whenever she moved, like she was constantly flying past wind charms.

Okay, perhaps it wouldn't be great for hunting, but it sure was something to show off.

"Look Latios! Look!"

Latios was already there, appreciating the additional accessory that Latias had. It certainly did make her stand out.

"It looks great! And it makes a good noise!"

"I'm going to show everyone in the garden!"

Mac watched as both Latias and Latios chatted for a few seconds, then flew into the kitchen and presumably from there into the garden. Which meant there was nothing more to distract Lorenzo.

"So, you're telling me you broke into someone else's house!?"

Mac shrugged. "It looked more like a HQ than a home. And it was either that or risk Latias or Latios being captured. Again."

Lorenzo was loosing the argument and he knew it, and he massaged his forehead.

"Please tell me that was it?"

Mac smiled.

"Nope! I've completed the whole of phase one. Bianca's told you what each one is, right?"

"Yes. So you've broken into someone's headquarters, stolen a dangerous chemical, looked at secret files and 'hacked' their computer as well?"

"Yep. Not bad considering we only came up with the plan a few hours ago."

Lorenzo shrugged and threw his hands to his side.

"Have you had tea, at least?"

"Yeah, actually, there's a rather nice coffee shop around from where their base is. Does cups of juice for the Pokemon"

"I know where you mean. Now, we've all had quite an exciting day and it's already half nine, so I suggest that we all get some rest. You've got work, tomorrow, Mac."

"What time?"

"We're leaving at nine. I'll wake you at half seven if you're not already awake, we need to make sure you look presentable."

Mac nodded and made his way to the stairs.

"No problem. See you tomorrow then, you two. Good night!"

Bianca gave a jolly wave goodnight, but Lorenzo kept his to a formal "Sleep Well". He was still slightly angry.

Mac couldn't sleep. His mind was too active, to anxious, and at the end of the day, too awake. He'd slept for more than thirty of the past forty-eight hours, and his brain wouldn't rest.

Sev's voice. The pilot. The new job tomorrow. The whine of the engines, an explosion. The pretty flight attendant. The gurgle of Sev's throat as blood drained out of it. The crunched of bone, the flash of light that ended so many lives, yet, so tiny in Mac's vision. He had caused it.

Mac checked his phone, pretty much his only valuable possession left. And it'd lost its value. It had been dropped a few meters, thrown into a tree, drowned, bloodied, exploded, accelerated and trodden on in the past week, and most of its functionality was gone. It couldn't call, send texts, use the gyroscope or the GPS, the WiFi was shot and the volume up key was wedged in place so he could never put it on silent, but Mac kept it. He used it to check the time now. 00:44. He'd gone to bed more than 3 hours ago, and not slept a wink.

Not that he wanted to. Sleep was bound to bring nightmares.

With a sigh, Mac crawled out of his sleeping bag and sat in the meditating position, looking at Cubone who had decided to sleep next to him, outside of the sleeping bag. Mac didn't meditate, but the position clicked all his joints into place. After ten seconds of that, he got up and pondered to the door of the art studio, treading carefully to avoid waking up Cubone. Mac was wide awake, nervous, and it was night time. The perfect time for an adventure.

Mac silently made his was outside and to the archway, pausing at the entrance. It was relatively light out here because the sky was clear and the moon was full, but the archway looked pitch black, with a pinprick of color at the end. Mac reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone, clicking on the light, one of the few features that still worked. It cast a moderately powerful beam about three meters. It wasn't bright by any means, but it would do. Mac had grown curious about the dragons. And how they slept.

Mac entered the archway and almost immediately turned around. The air was colder and it sent a chill down Mac's spine. But he was focused now, like the beam of light, and set off walking forwards. Albeit at a much, much faster pace. Just when he couldn't take it any more, he was out of the other side, panting. He had ran the last bit, scared of the darkness and silence other than the echo of his shoes against the stone floor.

But he was out now, and the moon lit the way once more. Mac flipped off the LED on the phone and looked around. He was on a long wide balcony with a pedestal in the center from which water flowed out of and into a lake below. Stairs descended either side of the platform, and into the woods, which - like the tunnel - looked dark and uninviting.

Luckily, Mac didn't need to go in them.

Sticking out like a sore thumb in the trees, were the two dragons, precariously roosted on two branches that ended with their snouts touching. Mac waited for his eyes to adjust and looked closer.

Around them, also wedged in the tree, were various sticks and other plant life, which appeared to be held in place either by the dragon sleeping on it, or a miracle. Even as Mac watched, parts of the construction fell off and hit the ground.

Mac sighed when he realised that the sticks were Latias and Latios' failed attempt at building a nest. It was a shocking effort, in Mac's opinion, and it actually made him stop and think.

All birds knew how to make nests. It was just a given. Saliva stuck the sticks together, and you built it as high up and as far under cover as possible.

To be fair, it looked like Latias had made an effort with the saliva-glue thing. Certainly, part of the sticks appeared to be wet and discolored. But for whatever reason, they weren't sticking.

And what was more, the 'nest' was built with half of it out in the open, facing the lake, not covered in any way.

Mac thought some more as he snook to the underneath of the tree they were roosted in to investigate further.

Why were they building a nest anyway? Surely if they had lived here since birth they would already have one? Was Latias expecting young? And why was their nest so bad?

Mac couldn't answer, and opted to inspect the building materials. Among the fallen parts were sweet wrappers, animal bones, leaves, berries and - here and there - a red feather, perhaps from Latias malting.

Mac looked up the check the dragons were sleeping, before darting forwards and taking a feather.

* * *

Bianca jolted awake as a loud noise filled the bedroom. She scrambled around for a few seconds, panicking, then located the source of the noise. Her phone - which was resting on the nightstand - had its screen lit up bright and ring tone blaring, the noise which had woken her.

Who was ringing at one in the morning?

Bianca picked the device up and looked at the screen, squinting at the bright back light . The call was from Katie.

Bianca sighed as she hit the answer button. Katie - although she wasn't the partying type - was probably drunk and calling to let her know she loved her or something like that.

"Bianca! You there?" Katie sounded worried. And there was a noise in the background, kind of like a howling, though it was too quiet to tell over Katie's voice and the call quality.

"No, Katie, I've decided to take up a career in digging water graves so I'm at work right now. Of course I'm here, where else would I be at one in the morning?"  
"Sorry Banksie, but we've got a colossal problem"  
"So you called me? What about your parents?"  
"They're still on the mainland. But, listen. Could you send Latias and Latios over?"

Bianca stuttered. What could Katie want with the Eons at this hour? Was it some kind of Team Rocket ploy?

"Why?"  
"Are you in bed?"  
"Katie, it's one in the morning. What do you think?"  
"Get up and go to the garden, I'll tell you why on the way."  
"What, your kidding me!? It's, like, two degrees out there, and I'm in my nightie. At least give me something to work with."

Bianca could hear Katie getting frustrated and stood up out of her bed, searching for and putting on her slippers as Katie responded.

"Absol's gone crazy. She's yelping and howling and the pups are copying her, and I can't get close because she just growls at me."  
"And?"  
"Have you seen those teeth? Ain't anyway I'm going near those"  
"Put her in her ball?"  
"She keeps dodging it"  
"Why? Try and corner her or something"  
"I don't know why. And I tried that, but she's standing her ground and showing her teeth."  
"Fair enough, but why do you need the twins?"  
"The neighbors are complaining about the noise and I was hoping that Latias could calm her down or something. Latios might embarrass her into behaving, what with her fancying him an everything..."  
"I don't know, judging by the mark she left on Latias I don't think either of them are too fond of her right now..."  
"Bianca, it's urgent. Please?"  
"Okay then, sorry. I'm on my way. They'll be about five minutes."  
"Your a life saver, Bianca."  
"Don't I know it." Bianca mumbled as she hung up and ran down the stairs.

* * *

Mac picked up the feather and turned it over in his hands. It was small, about two inches long and one wide. The fibers that made up the feather stemmed off a main quill, and looked very precisely arranged. One side of the feather was plain red, but the other didn't seem to have a color. Rather, it appeared that the the fibers were redirecting light around the outside of the feather. Looking at it head-on from this side, the feather appeared to be a series of random patterns which changed as it moved. Curious, Mac put his finger on the edge of the fibers. All the color that was in that sector of feather suddenly went. It was certainly interesting.

Mac looked around and picked up two more feathers, a white one, and a red one with a splodge of white, before gently storing them in a pocket.

* * *

Bianca left the house running and darted to the archway, stopping briefly to flip a switch on the wall, making a dozen florescent tubes that were recessed in the arch buzz on, lighting the way to the garden. She shouted while she ran.

"Latias! Latios! Get up! Absol needs help!" The shout echoed, but it wasn't enough to wake them. Mac didn't even hear her.

She stopped shouting and concentrated on running, getting breathless but also closer to the balcony. She burst out of the arch and shouted, eyes not adjusted and unable to see how close the dragons actually were.

"Latios! Latias! Absol needs you! Katie says she's having a fit or something!"

Mac looked up and saw Bianca, but she didn't see him. Mac, more crucially, didn't see the dragons.

Latios was up and flying the moment Bianca had reached the 'a' in his name. Latias was woken too, but opted to stay hidden until she or Latios had identified the loud noise. When she realized it was Bianca, though, she flew up and towards her too. Which left nothing holding down the poor attempt they had made at a nest. In complete silence, the nest collapsed.

Mac was completely unaware of the construction heading straight for him. Worse, what had looked like large sticks from far away, were actually sizeable branches, weighing a lot more than Mac could have predicted.

Fortunately, the first one to hit him was a glance on the shoulder, and though it knocked him over, it didn't hit his head.

Unfortunately, the pile consisted of more than one log. The remainder of the heavy logs fell on and around Mac's legs. Mac couldn't have heard it over the sound of the logs actually falling, but both of his Fibula cracked as they fractured and split, causing immense pain and making Mac cry out.

Latias was closer, and the only one to hear over the sound of the logs. While she flew to him, Latios was impatiently flying around Bianca, almost shouting in Lati.

"Awake! What? Absol? Why? Trouble! Trouble! Hurt!"

Bianca explained as quickly as possible before Latios could panic any more. "Katie called. She said Absol is howling but she doesn't know why, and she won't stop. She wants you to go and calm her down. Take Latias too."

Latios nodded and turned to face Latias, only to find her no longer roosting in the tree. He panicked and rushed to the nest, before he found her scent at the base of the tree. He flew down and saw her sniffing around a stunned Mac.

"Latias, Mac?"

"Yeah, Mac. He looks hurt."

Latios was more interested in Mac's hands then his legs. They smelt very faintly like Latias' flippers.

Mac managed to snap out of it, to find Latios sniffing his hands and Latias watching. He wasn't looking in that direction, but if he was, he would have seen Bianca leaning over the rails and staring at him.

"Mac? Is that you?"

Mac was staying very, very still. Partly because his legs hurt beyond description, but also because it looked like Latios was considering him as a midnight snack.

He spoke in a quiet and measured voice, and Bianca strained to pick it up.

"Bianca, I think Latios is going to eat me. My legs hurt too much to run...could you distract him for a few minutes?" The pain and the paranoia had given him a rush of adrenaline, also making him delusional.

Bianca frowned and started to walk down the stairs. Mac didn't appear to be making much sense. That, and what was he doing in the garden in the first place? Was he having a nightmare?

Latias, meanwhile, turned around to look at his legs. He said they were hurting, and judging by the angle the bit below his knee was at, he probably was in quite a lot of pain. Latias wasn't an expert on the human anatomy, but she was pretty sure their legs weren't meant to bend in two places.

Bianca got to ten feet away before she saw his legs. It made her own turn into jelly. And there was also this crisis with Absol too.

"You two" - Latios stopped inspecting Mac's hands and looked back at Bianca - "Go and help Absol. I'll sort out what's happened here. And probably call an ambulance."

Both dragons nodded, wanting to help Absol, but before they left, Bianca made a humming noise and called Latias back.

"Latias!"

Latias flew back around to Bianca and made an inquisitive 'nyu' noise.

"Mac looks quite bad. Put him to sleep for me?"

Latias nodded and looked at the boy, eyes glowing.

Mac panicked for the few seconds he had before Latias psychiced him to sleep.

"That it?"

"Thanks. You go and help Absol now."

Latias nodded and flew up to Latios, the pair accelerating towards to Katie's house the moment they were level, leaving Bianca alone in the garden with Mac and his broken legs.

Both dragons had had enough sleep, and Latios sounded concerned as he chatted to her.

"Did Mac wake you up?"

"No, but his legs looked bad. Did he climb the tree and fall off?"

This thought hadn't occurred to Latios, but now Latias had mentioned it, he was convinced that's what had happened. He'd climbed the tree, touched Latias' flippers, and fallen down. How else could her scent have been so fresh on his hands?

Latios filled with rage. How dare Mac touch his mate! Especially without asking! Especially especially since she was asleep at the time!

Latios was glad Mac's legs were broken. Perhaps he could go to the hospital after he'd sorted Absol and scare him a bit more. Not hurt him, Bianca would never forgive him. Just scare him. And a swipe across the arm with his paw for good measure. Yeah.

Bianca looked at Mac and decided that she wasn't really qualified to help him, and pulled out her phone. Quite how both his legs had ended up bending at a right angle halfway between his knee and his ankle was beyond her, but he definitely wasn't safe to move. She dialled the emergency number, followed by a two. The call cut straight to the hospital.

"Emergency response, location and problem."

Of course, Bianca wasn't just about to announce the location of a massive off the map garden to a telephone operator. She dodged the question, desperately trying to remember the squad number of a friend she'd made when she'd trained with the ambulance service.

"Can I request a specific person to attend?"  
"As long as it's not life threatening and they're on duty."  
"Okay. I've got a friend who's been crushed by falling tree. He's fine, not bleeding, but his legs are twisted up. Is squad 5 available?"

There was a tapping noise down the line.

"Yes. What's your location?"  
"Tell the team it's Bianca. They'll know."  
"I can't do that. I need you to tell me a location."

"Er..."

* * *

As Latios and Latias approached Katie's house, they heard Absol howling, accompanied by the higher pitched whines of her pups. As they got closer they could hear exactly what she was shouting. It didn't sound good.

"WAKE UP!"

"DON'T TOUCH HIM! HE'S JUST RESTING!"

Latias was more emotionally tuned than Latios, and to her, Absol sounded desperate. To Latios, she sounded manic.

As Latias got into view, she stopped suddenly. Partly because of what she could see, but also because a certain smell had just caught her nostrils. Latios drew level and stopped too. Both of them looked down in dismay.

Absol was lying on the floor, rear in the air and leaning on her front paws. the pups were surrounding her, yowling. Whether it was because they felt their mother's despair or because they wanted feeding, Latias couldn't tell.

What she could tell was what she was barking at.

Directly in front of her was an Absol puppy, lying completely motionless on its side. Latias recognized it as the one that she cleaned earlier, and almost cried with Absol when she realized with her heat vision that it was stone cold. Dead.

Latias had killed stuff all the time, and no doubt some of it was only a baby, but it didn't seem right when the dead thing was one of her friends pups.

Latias turned around and buried her head under Latios' wing as Absol shouted at the puppy again.

"WHY WON'T YOU LISTEN?!"

That did it for Latias, and she let out a sob. Latios just floated there. It was shocking, yes, but at the same time, Absol had one less puppy to feed. He floated there a bit longer until Latias calmed down, then moved his wing up a bit.

"Latias. She needs to stop now. We might as well go down there and break the news to her."

"I don't want to. She'll be so upset, what if she hurts the other ones?"

"Shes upset now. And if she gets violent I'll stop her."

Latios didn't want to dwell on it any longer, and flew slowly downward in a spiral. He got within smelling distance before Absol noticed.

Her head snapped up and she growled.

Latios moved a foot forward and the growl got deeper. The other pups had retreated behind her.

Latios flew a final foot forward before Absol barked at him.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!"

He flew a bit backwards and looked upset.

"Sorry. I'm not going to-"

"GO AWAY!"

"Absol?"

"LEAVE MY PUPS ALONE!"  
"I'm not-"  
"GO! FLY BACK TO YOUR LITTLE GARDEN AND MOLEST LATIAS!"

Latios had tried being nice and that - obviously - had failed. Since Latios only knew two ways of doing something, one being nice and the other being violent, he tried the second approach, and went for Absol. He stooped down, and before she could realize, the scruff of her neck was in his mouth.

The moment she caught up, she started hissing and flailing her paws in the air.

"PUT ME DOWN! I WILL KILL YOU, YOU, YOU MONSTER! LOOK WHAT YOU DID! LOOK!"

"PUT ME DOWN! I SWEAR TO ARCEUS IF YOU DON'T PUT ME RIGHT DOWN NEXT TO MY PUPPIES RIGHT NOW I WILL BITE YOUR WINGS OFF AND FEED THEM TO THEM!"

"COWARD! YOU'RE NOT BATTLING FAIR BECAUSE YOU KNOW YOU'D LOOSE!"

"WHAT KIND OF MATE IS A FAT BIRD? YOU ONLY LIKE HER BECAUSE SHE'S THE ONLY ONE OF YOUR KIND LEFT!"

Latios blocked it out and flew Absol to the roof of the house, before dropping her a minimal distance onto the tiles. Perhaps separating her from the pups would help her focus.

Reality served to prove him wrong.

The moment her paws got traction, Absol turned and leapt at Latios, teeth out and aiming for his neck. Latios dodged it with relative ease, flying out of her reach. Not that it mattered, because she'd used the opportunity to escape, running to the edge of the roof in the direction of the garden, and jumping off.

Latios didn't panic. Absol looked perfectly built for jumping the two stories, and she proved this when she hit the ground paws first and galloped to her pups, which had barely moved during the entire episode. They were all stunned with their tails between their legs, their mother being carried away by a dragon quite a scary thing to happen. They yipped and ran under her for comfort and protection the moment she returned.

As Latias flew down to Latios, Absol picked up the dead pup in her teeth and hid it under herself, still convinced it was sleeping.

Latias frowned at Latios.

"No! That was wrong! She's really upset, you cant just pick her up like she's prey and carry her away from her pups!"

Latios frowned back.

"I know...but I couldn't think what else to do."

"Because you're stupid. Fine. I'll do it."

Latias glanced down at Absol. She was staring back up at them with fear in her eyes. Her heckles were raised, but her tail was tucked in and her legs were shaking slightly.

Latias flew down to her in direct sight, wings down and face glum. Her reception was better than Latios'.

Instead of growling, Absol whimpered and sunk lower to the ground, covering the pups further.

"Please, don't eat them..."

Latias stayed glum.

"I don't want to, Absol."

"Why else are you here then if it's not to eat something?"

"Because were your friends and we heard you needed help"

Absol went from depressed to neutral.

"Well...I...guess. I don't need your help though. Unless you've got any food or milk to give."

"Sorry, no. I could get some?"  
"No, I'm fine."  
"But you were howling?"  
"Oh, that. Well..."

Absol looked ready to carry on, but she suddenly broke down and started howling again.

"ONE OF MY PUPS WON'T WAKE UP! I WANT TO FEED IT BUT HE JUST LIES THERE. AND...AND..."

To prove her point, Absol grabbed the pup from under herself and gently tried to lower it on it's feet. But the pup was stone dead, and its legs just flopped.

"HE WON'T WAKE UP! WHAT AM I DOING WRONG!? HE MUST BE HUNGRY. WHY. ARE. YOU. STILL. SLEEPING?"

The last bit was shouted while she stamped her front paws on every word. Absol went back to trying to be nice to it.

"Wake up? Please? I've got loads of milk now? Please?"

Latias couldn't stand it any more.

"Absol. That pup. It's cold. Some of it's fur's falling out. And it's so thin. Absol?"

"NO! HE'S FINE!"  
"He's dead, Absol."  
"HE'S NOT!"  
"Please, Absol, just listen."  
"You're lying! You want to steal him and eat him!"  
"No Absol! He's yours! You can keep him! It's just..."  
"YOU CAN'T HAVE HIM! HE'S GOING TO WAKE UP SOON!"  
"He's dead, friend. He's not going to wake up"

Absol opened her mouth to shout back, but froze. Deep down, she knew Latias was right...

She heavily sat her rear on the floor and howled her despair the sky, one final death kneel.

As she did, the first flake of winters snow gently sailed down from the sky and settled on the dead pup's fur.

* * *

Bianca breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the blue lights bounce off the wall of the tunnel. Shortly after it, a familiar nurse Joy's head popped out over the balcony. Bianca shouted and waved.

"Down here! His legs are crushed, I didn't want to move him."

Joy saw Bianca and shouted as she ran for the stairs.

"On my way!"

The blue light moved down the staircase with Joy in front and a man behind. Bianca vaguely remembered him being a doctor, but was too worried about Mac to bother about him seeing the garden. Latias could always wipe his mind afterwards.

The blue light was being made by four flashing lamps attached to the corners of a floating back board.

The emergency boats had to be as small as possible in order to fit down the narrow waterways, and the backboard was designed to be as versatile as possible. On a boat, it acted as a siren and lights, and on land it could clear busy tourist streets in seconds. On water it could lift up to three hundred kilos - enough for the medic to perform CPR on the water.

The nurse and doctor threw the board to the side as they arrived. Bianca pointed at Mac and explained.

"I found him like this. It looks like those logs fell on his legs while he was walking or something."

Nurse Joy nodded as she broke out some scissors to cut away Mac's trouser legs and get a better look at the injury. She explained the doctor's awkward presence as she worked.

"Right then, Bianca. This is Doctor Fritzakerly. He was the one who did the initial assessment on Latios, you can trust him."

Bianca nodded as the doctor went to examine Mac. He interrogated her as he inspected.

"How did this happen?"

"Long story short, Latias and Latios tried building a nest and it fell on him. They were using logs instead of sticks."

"Hmmm...a nest? Will we be getting little Latis soon, I wonder... Who is he?"

"His name's Mac. He's...a friend."  
As much as she trusted the doctor, she wasn't quite ready to reveal how Mac had got to be in Altomare. They might lock her up in the loony bin if she did.

"So they didn't do this to attack him? Fair enough."

The doctor nodded and looked at nurse Joy.

"Nurse?"

Nurse Joy glanced at Mac.

"Nothing we can do here. Put him on the board and then into the theatre, we'll need an op to get this put right."

The medics did the rest of their work as if Bianca wasn't even there, lifting Mac onto the board, securing him to it and carrying him off almost without another word, except nurse joy as she left.

"Bianca?"  
"Yes?"  
"He's going to have to have an operation. We'll take him with the fast boat, you'll have to make your own way to he hospital. Ask for Mac at the desk."  
"Got it."

And then he was gone, blue lights on the stretcher disappearing down the archway.

Bianca was left alone in the garden, freezing cold and shell shocked. She only moved when a snowflake fell and landed on her nose.

* * *

That s**t right there, that is the F**KING MEANING OF PATHETIC-MOTHER-F**KING-FALLACY. F**KING SHAKESPERE COULD NOT HAVE ORGANISED SOMETHING SO SHI**ILY PATHETIC IN IT'S F**KING FALLACY! YOU DON'T HAVE ENOUGH QUALIFICATIONS TO RESTRAIN ME! U-G-L-E, I DON'T WANT ENGRISH DEGREE!

*ahem*

Please read and review.


	11. Chapter 11

Sorry about the late upload, various thingies stopped me from uploading over the past two weeks. Thingies resolved, Enjoy!

* * *

"I'm sorry, but it's not visiting hours. It's barely even surgery hours. You're going to have to wait."

"Wait!? My friend's been crushed by a tree and knocked out, and all you're telling me to do is WAIT!?"

Nurse Joy sighed and yawned, feeling empathy for the emotional girl. She was, after all, just looking after her friend.

"I really would buzz you through, but it's policy. We open for visitors in two hours, you can take a seat over there until then. Have a cookie or read a magazine. Have a nap if you want, we've got additives if you can't sleep..."

"Pleeeeease?"

"As much as I appreciate your manners, the answer is still no."

Biamca flung her arms in the air and huffed, making a point of her objections.

"Fine. I'll wait." and she flounced over to the row of chairs, taking a seat and crossing her arms. It was clear she meant business.

After Mac had been taken off, Bianca had walked back into the house to find Lorenzo sat at the kitchen table, red eyes and not 100% aware of his surroundings.

"I don't understand that lad. He can travel half the way around the world, break into two secret agents' house, and he's just fine. We leave him for one night and his legs end up backwards..."

Bianca had just sighed and patted him on the back. The old man had to deal with a lot. In the end she'd volunteered to visit Mac straight away so Lorenzo wouldn't have to take the day off work.

Which was why she was now sat in the hospital reception at four in the morning.

The nurse got up from behind her desk and took a seat with Bianca instead, quietly calling a chansey to take her place at the desk, which it did with a smile. There never were many people to admit at this time, if any, and she'd only be across the room if someone did show up.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Bianca shook her head and spoke in a disappointed tone.

"No... Not really."

"What's up?"

Bianca guessed that part of it was just being worn down. She hadn't slept much after Latias had disappeared, and now she was back it was a bit of a shock. Then there was Latias herself: She'd developed since Bianca was small. Really, they'd developed almost side by side. Except now Latias was going out with Latios, whereas she had no one. In a way, the nest - no matter how poor a quality - represented Latias ability, or at least, intent, to want to be self sufficient. Her own person. Dragon. True, she already could be, but she chose to still hang out with her and play and get treats.

Bianca wondered if she was holding Latias back. And feared what she would do if she just stopped and told them to go and live their own lives, not constricted to the garden walls.

Not that she could tell the nurse any of that.

"I'm just... Worried... About my friend..."

Nurse Joy sighed and smiled. That she could handle.

"Well, if that's the issue, you don't need to worry. He's in surgery now, and he'll be just fine when he gets out. They're really smart with what they do these days..."

"Just fine?"

Nurse Joy frowned, perhaps she'd been a bit optimistic.

"Well, there's always a small bit of rehab afterwards, he'll probably be on crutches for a bit, but not long. I didn't see what happened, but odds are he'll be just fine in the long run."

Bianca stayed silent.

* * *

Eventually, Absol finished her howl and just stood on all fours, glaring down on the pup. Latias whispered to her.

"Are you okay?"

Absol just did a weak mew.

"I guess."

"You sure?"

"No."

"Okay."

Absol continued to stand and stare at the deceased pup for ten minutes.

"Absol?"

"Yes?"

"Perhaps you should take all your pups inside?"

Absol nodded. She should probably do that.

"Okay?"

"Yes. Let's go."

Absol picked up the lifeless pup in her teeth and walked up to the back door of Katie's house, the rest of her pups in tow. They'd not been in the house before, but their mother didn't seem to mind, so they followed her.

Latios watched as Absol started scratching at the foot of the back door, barking at the same time.

"KATIE! KATIE! I'M READY NOW! KATIE!"

She stopped scratching at the door and sat on her rear as the pups copied her previous action, howling at the door and running their paws at the plastic threshold. Absol hung her head started crying through the pup in her mouth.

"Now even Katie doesn't like me..."

That wasn't true though, and Katie opened the door to the snow colored Pokemon, making her pups scatter back behind her.

What Katie saw was sobering. Absol surrounded by six pups, crying, with a seventh, unresponsive one in her mouth. It didn't take a genius to figure out what had happened. When Katie realised, she crouched down to Absol's level and hugged around her head.

"Oh, Absol, I'm so sorry. Is he...?"

Absol let out a pathetic mew and Katie sobbed a little bit.

"Oh... Okay... Look, you need to come inside... I've got food, it's okay... poor you... It's okay, just... Do you want these two?"

Absol turned to see her two friends still floating silently behind her. She looked at the floor as she spoke to them, the pup still slightly obscuring her mouth.

"I'm sorry about this, you two. Now you're all out in the snow and you don't like it and... And I'm sorry for biting you before Latias... and for saying all those thi-"

Latios butted in.

"No, I'm sorry for provoking you. Are you okay, now?"

Absol turned back around and led her pups into the house as she dismissed the two freezing dragons.

"I'm fine, now. You can go."

Latias nodded and turned tail, glad for the dismissal. The net negative aura she'd been receiving was starting to make her feel physically ill. The effect wasn't as strong with Latios, but he still felt it.

"Whoa... That was... Depressing"

Latias stayed silent, still subdued. The snow that she was flying into didn't help. She was just glad they had that nest, now. She certainly wasn't going to sleep on the floor.

* * *

Behind the nurses desk, a phone rang, and the Chansey shot nurse joy a look. Nurse Joy darted to the table, apologizing to a morbid Bianca.

"Internal call, gotta take this. It might be news about Mac."

Bianca didn't respond, just stared at the floor. Nurse joy picked up the receiver of the phone and held it to her ear.

"Front desk, Hello?"

The voice on the other end spoke at length, but Nurse Joy cut whoever it was off.

"Yes... We have someone. Waited about half an hou-..."  
This time, the voice cut Joy off, but Bianca already had her head raised. Someone was asking for her? Joy's next sentence confirmed it.

"She. She says she's a friend."  
As Bianca sprinted to the desk, the person on the other end of the phone hummed, then asked Joy another question, which she relayed to Bianca.

"He says 'what kind of friend?'"

Bianca didn't hesitate.

"His closest. No one else really knows him as much as me"

"You get that?" The nurse asked the phone, and it came back with a yes, then a set of instructions. Joy nodded a few times, then slammed the phone down, grabbing Bianca by the wrist in her own excitement. She finally got to do something other than sit behind a desk!

"Mac!? Is he okay!?"

"He's come out of his op, and they say the anaesthetic is wearing off, but whatever knocked him out before has left him confused. They need someone to jog his memory quickly before his mind 'sets' or something. Like how you forget a dream a few seconds after waking up"

"Oh dear."

"Indeed. Hurry up!"

The nurse led Bianca deeper into the hospital, until they reached the annexe for a part of the ward. Bianca paused at the hand wash station, but was nurse just ushered her through without stopping.

"He's the only one in the ward right now and he's all bandaged up. We'll run a cleaner through here as well, too, just hurry!"

Two more doors later, and they were greeted by the doctor that had collected Mac barely two hours ago.

"Nurse, you're dismissed. Bianca, with me, now." This was no time for pleasantries, and the nurse scattered away. Bianca was given the world shortest basic psychology briefing, before she was shoved into the ward containing Mac.

"He's a bit confused at the moment, and there's the risk that he'll forget who he is. Go in there and try to mention as much stuff as you can remember about him, good or bad. Now go!"

And with that, Bianca entered the ward through a double door and was faced instantly with Mac, in the centre bed to her left. the curtain that could be drawn around the bed was drawn back, so she could see the state he was in. Both his legs were in casts suspended from the ceiling, but other than that, he was fine. A closer look revealed the confused look he was wearing. And was it her, or weren't his eyes pointing in the same direction? They were open, though, and it looked like Mac was trying to focus on her, so she went ahead and introduced herself.

"Mac? I'm Bianca? Do you remember me?"

Mac mouthed the words Bianca just said, before saying his own.

"Mac? Is Mac here?"

Bianca's face dropped and she knelt beside the bed, her face a foot from his, fearing the worst. Had a log hit him in the head after all? He couldn't even remember his own name!? Had Latias caused him some serious damage when she knocked him out?!

"You are Mac, Mac." - she pointed at him to re-enforce this - "And I'm Bianca. You live with me now, along with Latias and Latios. You used to live in a place called England, but you fled here with Latias because someone tried to kill you. PLEASE, Mac, you've GOT to remember!"

It was all she could do not the shake the boy, but she didn't want to damage him any more.

"Mac?"

Bianca shook her head.

"You're real name is Marc Simmons, but everyone calls you Mac, especially me. You don't like Raymond flakes, and you get surprised when Latias sneezes... Er... You were on a plane and jumped out before it exploded? Latias killed someone? You don't remember any of this?"

Mac's eyes stayed unfocused as he waved his hand infront of his face, like he was trying to touch Bianca's.

"Latmias?"

Bianca sighed and chocked back a sob, intercepting Mac's hand and running it along her forehead. It just felt like the right thing to do.

"No, I'm Bianca. I wear a beret. Latias sometimes looks like me, but she doesn't wear a beret."

Mac's expression stayed blank, and Bianca flipped, shouting in his face.

"CAN'T YOU REMEMBER ANYTHING?! YOU GOT CHASED BY SECRET AGENTS? YOU'RE FIGHTING THEM BACK? WE CAME UP WITH A PLAN WHILE WE DRANK SMOOTHIES TOGETHER?!"

Bianca was in tears, but Mac still stayed still as she got up and paced around the ward.

"AND I KISSED YOU BECAUSE YOU'RE THE ONLY PERSON I HAVE NOW! BECAUSE I LOVE YOU! DID THAT ALL MEAN NOTHING? THAT YOU DIDN'T REMEMBER!?"

Bianca wasn't even looking at him anymore, too busy searching the ward for something to kick into several pieces. So she didn't see Mac refocus his eyes, or even smile. She did, however, hear his voice, clear as day and overly jolly.

"I'm just shitting you, I remembered all of that, never forgot! I know who I am, where I am, where I'm from and why I'm here."

There was a pause as Bianca turned around slowly. She didn't speak, but once she'd turned around fully she could see an unmistakable smirk on Mac's face.

"Yep, I was just kidding... you should have seen your face!"

Bianca's face was bright red from the shouting and crying, but it was positively pale in comparison to the mark she left on Mac's face as she raised her hand and hit him right across the cheek.

Mac was still giggling when the doctor walked in to see what the loud slapping noise was.

* * *

Latias made a crying noise when she got back to the garden, to see their nest lying on the ground in pieces at the base of the tree. It had collapsed when they left and she'd forgotten all about it. They had spent forever building the nest as well, and for it to be reduced to a pile of sticks and feathers just added to her depressed mood. She flew down and inspected the pile with her snout.

Latios was floating further away, watching as his mate searched in vain for something salvageable. The snow was starting to settle, though, and she quickly gave up and returned to Latios, flying under his wing for warmth.

"The nest has gone." As well as her aura, Latias' voice was nearing total depression. Latios saw an opportunity to cheer her up.

"You don't need a nest so long as we've got each other. Lets just find a tree that we'll both fit on and roost until it stops snowing."

* * *

"So, Bianca, have you seen an x-ray before?"

Bianca sulked out a yes, still pretty annoyed that Mac had managed to persuade the doctor to go along with him on the whole 'lost his memory' prank. It was almost like he was still laughing.

"Good. Now, here's Mac's legs before the op..."

He pinned up a semi-translucent film with an x-ray of Mac's left leg. Bianca winced: the bone wasn't just broken, it had snapped in such a way that the fracture ran in a jagged line, which was then rotated at a right angle and pushing into the soft tissue of his leg.

"And this is after..."

The next picture was considerably better: the fracture was still there, but at least the bone was now joined together in one line and not at an angle.

"That's good... I think..."

The doctor shook his head.

"We're going to do some stem cell injections to help fuse the bone back together naturally, but that's not the problem here. You see this light area here?"

He pointed to an ever so slightly lighter line on the inside of the leg, and Bianca had to lean in to see it, but it was there.

"What about it?"

The doctor paused to adjust something on his coat before carrying on. It wasn't exactly what Bianca wanted, but his tone suggested that the problem was only temporary.

"Well, this here line is denser scar tissue caused when the bone cut into the muscle. Scar tissue doesn't act like normal muscle, in fact, it doesn't offer any give at all."

Bianca narrowed her eyes.

"Which means..."

"Which means that the joints this muscle would normally actuate - that's the toes in this case - won't be able to move until this scar tissue is completely recovered, and, of course, removed."

"How long are we talking?"

"Straight to the point, it's a wheelchair for six weeks, crutches for an additional three, a short and simple rehab op to remove any waste tissue, full recovery to previous state in six months."

Bianca glared at Mac, and he shrugged.

"It's better then what I'd have got at home. We're still trying to figure out stem cell therapy. At home I'd be lucky to be out of the wheelchair in six months."

"So, what's full recovery mean? Surely you're better once you can walk..."

The doctor nodded as Bianca looked between the two in confusion.

"Yes, he'll be able to walk soon. When we say 'Full Recovery', we mean he'll be able to do sports like running, or, in this chaps case, climbing. I've explained it all to him, and now, it's about time for the early morning rush, I'm going to clean up. Feel free to stay as long as you like, Bianca. Just don't hit him."

The doctor turned to the door and Bianca gave a curtsy - to Mac's confusion - as he left, before rounding on Mac herself.

"You, Mac, have a lot to answer for..."

"Yeah, so do you! Why did you curtsy for that man?"

"Because that's what you do! He's a doctor, it's just polite!"

Mac shrugged as Bianca turned the tables.

"What were you doing in the garden at that time in the morning anyway!?"

Mac was on the defensive immediately.

"Hey! I'm the one who's not walking for a few months! Perhaps you could try being a bit nicer? And I'll have you know, I was conducting a detailed scientific analysis of your two pet dragons and their sleeping habits."

Bianca just gave him a weird look.

"You were watching them sleep, Mac. That's creepy. How would you like it if I watched you while you sleep?"

"If you did, my legs wouldn't be broken, so perhaps I'd be glad."

Mac folded his arms, but he was still smiling, which just made Bianca angrier.

"Why are you smiling!? You're practically paralyzed for the next few weeks! How long have you got in here until they let you out?"

Mac shrugged.

"The doctor said that I could leave once they're sure that the anaesthetic has completely worn off and they've found a wheelchair to fit two casts. Speaking of that doc, is he even a doctor for humans?"

"What DO you mean, Mac?"

"Well, he told me while we were waiting for you that he knew I was your friend and that he did some work on Latios once."

"Your point being?"

"Well, surely they should just stick to one type of animal, you know... people, OR Pokémon, not both. Specialist."

Bianca shrugged and picked up a pen from the table next to Mac's bed. At least she could write various offensive things on his cast to get him back for his prank.

"A lot of Pokemon and humans have the same stuff, inside, I guess."

"Hey, wait, what are you doing?"

Bianca chuckled as she started to graffiti Mac's cast. It was held in place with secure cords, and Mac didn't have good enough thigh muscles to lift himself up, so he was hopeless to watch. This was no ordinary graffiti, though. Bianca was sure she could work it into a masterpiece, even if she only had a biro. Mac saw her grin and warned her.

"Don't get too attached or make anything too extravagant. Or rude. These get cut off with a hand grinder in a few weeks."

"Better make them pretty then... Say, where's that doctor's x-ray, that looked cool..."

* * *

_A Few Hours Later..._

* * *

Latios opened his eyes to whiteness and a feeling of intense cold. And this wasn't 'You're at 20,000 feet and the wind is a bit chilly'. This was, 'It's snowed and ice has now formed under your feathers and is touching your skin' cold. Which was not pleasant.

Latios checked for Latias' aura to his right, glad to find it bright, but dozing. She wasn't fully asleep, but she wasn't awake either. Either way, it was best that they didn't leave the snow on themselves too long. While their feathers were hydrophobic and didn't let water touch their skin, snow didn't behave the same way, and for some reason or another was able freeze onto them, eliminating the thermal air barrier that the hydrophobic feathers normally created.

Latios cawed a good morning coo to no one in particular as he flew out of the tree and shook himself to remove the snow. His vision remained slightly blurred though, the water having frozen on top of his eye. Any other species with practical arms would just have to rub their eyes a few times and the ice would melt and drain away harmlessly as a tear, but that wasn't the case here. Latios had to settle with blinking over and over until the blurs became smudges, which became patches, and eventually, clear images. Next up was to wake Latias, who clearly hadn't heard his first coo of the day.

How nice would it be if she got up to find her coat free of snow, Latios wondered?

Her wings, really, were fine. Latios had made sure he'd covered her with his own as much as possible, so the only real areas where there was any snow were the edge of her ears and the top of her rear. The rest, Latios had taken the brunt of for her.

Latios got to work, unfolding a paw and gently dusting off the snow from Latias. At some point as he patted down her tail fins he felt her aura stir, but she stayed unresponsive. In a minute, the job was done, and Latios flew back slightly to admire his well kept prize of a mate. He bright red coat now stood out on the white background, and her wings - which were down and at rest - looked sleek and elegant, slightly tucked behind her. Her snout was resting on a branch, pointing towards Latios, and the pattern on it looked perfect, with her ears cocked at a jaunty angle, like she wasn't quite sure what she was listening for.

"Latias!"

Latias' eyes shot open and she flapped her flippers instinctively. Then, after a few seconds, she did the same thing Latios had done, cooing a vibrant 'good morning!'. Then she saw the snow littering the ground and frowned.

"Snow? Great. Glad there's none on me!"

Latios smiled and nudged her snout with his own, prompting her to fly out of the tree with him and over above the white carpet that nature had laid out while they had been sleeping.

"You had some snow on you, but I got rid of it."

Latias blushed, not that Latios noticed, and she was about to lean in and bump against his snout, but a movement distracted both of them at the same time. Four dragon eyes all darted downwards to look at what it was.

A wild Skitty had left where it was sleeping under a tree, to find that all the nice comfortable grass of yesterday had been replaced with cold damp snow.

Out of the corner of it's eye, the Skitty saw a tiny movement, like a small Pokemon that was running away or something. Without leaving any time to let it get away, the Skitty bounced sideways, planning on having the small Pokemon for breakfast. To her disappointment, though, it was just a leaf. A brown and rotten leaf that had fallen off a tree suffering from winter.

Still, a target was a target, and the Skitty set about attacking the leaf.

"Look at it, Look!" Latias coo'd in excitement.

"Let's chase it!" Latios shouted back, making the kitten Pokemon turn around in alarm, then dart away, zigzagging it's motions to make discerning it's actual path difficult.

Latias agreed and dived low, staying relatively slow compared to her top speed, but still fast enough to make the Skitty feel threatened. She wasn't chasing it for food or anything like that - It looked cute and innocent enough to be spared that fate. Still, it was a fun thing to do, and there was still a thrill to be gotten out of it. With any luck, they could chase it into a corner, then surprise it with a present in return for playing.

Latios flew ahead of Latias and the Skitty as they both entered a clear line of trees. Thinking quick, the Skitty hopped two of it's own widths to the side, ending up under the cover of a thick bush.

"Awww!"

The expression had been part sadness, but she'd also found the small Pokemon jumping for cover kind of adorable. Plus, it showed that the animal was actually quite intelligent for its species.

Latias flew above the bush and looked down, seeing quite a few tasty looking berries, but also the flash of pink of the Skitty's tail. It was pacing round in a circle inside the bush, either lost, following it's own tail or waiting for Latias to go. Either way, it ended up stood still with part of it's pink tail trailing out of the bush. Latios honed in on it and lightly tapped it with his snout.

Instantly, the Skitty was up and running again, no longer zigzagging and instead running flat out. Latias was still easily flying after it, adding leisurely dips and peaks to her flightpath in order to show off to Latios a bit. Latios responded by yet again jetting over the two Pokemon's head, wings spread out and casting a big black shadow against the white show. The Skitty looked up and saw Latios, then leaped unexpectedly into an iron tail attack. But the Pokemon was only on a low level, and although Latios let it connect with the area just under his wing, it didn't hurt badly. It was like Latias when they were play fighting. Latios floated still and looked at the pink Pokemon, waiting for it's next move.

* * *

"Aaaaaaand... Tada!"

Mac had been watching for over an hour as Bianca had worked on the casts, turning the dull pale gray fibres into extravagant masterpieces. From the angle Mac was looking at, they didn't appear to be anything special. But Bianca had assured him, from everyone else's, it would appear like the cast was a cross-section into his leg, in perspective and true to the x-ray, right down to the line of troublesome scar tissue. Her work had attracted the notice of the nurse on the ward as she popped in to warn the two teens.

"Just to let you know, some more patients are starting to come in. Trips and Slips on the snow. Respect at all times, please, and keep the noise down..."

Bianca had nodded, but the nurse had stayed, staring at the casts before gesturing Bianca to come closer, which she did.

"Do you draw on things like that normally?"

"I do paint, yes, but not on casts, no. Why?"

"Do you have the rest of the day spare?"

Bianca had planned on checking up on Absol, but that could wait.

"Nothing planned until he gets out, no, why?"

"We're expecting quite a few children and baby Pokemon to come in with cast-able injuries, and you know what they're like... It'd be really nice if you could decorate their casts, you know... With bright colors and that kind of thing. Keep them happy since they're missing out on the snow."

Bianca didn't hesitate.

"Of course! I'd get to stay with Mac, though?"

The nurse nodded and even did a girlish giggle.

"What, are you worried he's going to make a run for it? Of course, we put all of that kind of patient in the traction ward for a bit anyway. I'll get you some better pens and stuff. The next patient's just being treated now, it's a young girl with a fractured humorous."

"No problem. See you soon!"

* * *

Again, the Skitty jumped and tried an iron tail, but it thunked harmlessly against Latios' side. By that time, the Skitty was tired, and it leaded heavily on the ground. It looked up, expecting Latios to at least be distracted. It dropped it's ears and tail when Latios just looked... Unbothered.

Latias intervened, flying to and cooing right in the face of the smaller Pokemon.

"Hi! I'm Latias, this is my brother Latios!"

The Skitty cocked it's head at the weird introduction: This was the thing that had just spent five minutes chasing it around the garden. It stayed silent, suspecting a trick. They certainly looked crafty.

"Did we scare you? Sorry! It was fun playing, though!"

The Skitty didn't think it felt like they were playing. It had all felt too real, especially when the blue one had touched it's tail. The same dragon spoke now.

"Are you cold? We are. It's winter now. It's better to fly or run around, right?"

The Skitty finally nodded, clearly not a fan of verbal communication.

"Do you have any brothers? Sisters?" Latias asked, concerned. The Skitty looked like it had plenty of fur, but that wouldn't mean it or it's friends wouldn't get cold. Their legs weren't very long, so even a small snowdrift could cause a big problem.

The Skitty nodded, and that was it.

"Oh... Okay... Would they like some berries? Latios could give you a feather?"

On one hand, the food would make up for all the energy lost from having to run from them. On the other, the feather would not only be an epic status symbol, but it would also look amazing.

"Feather."

Latias nodded and smiled at Latios, who frowned back at her. She may have been malting, but he wasn't, and this was going to hurt more than it would have if she'd done it. But, as the humans said, 'Man Up'.

A wince later and Skitty had one blue Latios feather deposited at its feet.

* * *

"How did he do this then?"

Bianca looked up at the owner of the Lucario with a smile. Said owner was a stereotypical trainer: red cap, belt full of Poke Balls, backpack... and the fact that he was stood looking rather sorry for his Pokémon which was now sat up in a bed and staring at the cast around it's arm.

"He tried running and he slipped on the ice."

Bianca nodded and dabbed away at the cast around the Lucario's upper arm, taking particular attention not to lean or rest her hand on it's chest and end up impaling herself on the three spikes it had. She started asking the Lucario questions seeing as the trainer looked a little busy feeling guilty.

"This your first winter then?"

The Pokémon looked fully grown, but it could have been kept in a ball for the previous ones. The blue Pokémon shook it's head.

"Ahh right."

On the bed opposite, Mac was fuming. There was absolutely nothing else to do. About three minutes ago he'd asked the nurse if they had a wheelchair, and while they did have loads, the case appeared to be that none of them were suitable for the two plaster cylinders Mac had attached to his feet. Which was ridiculous: A wheelchair was a wheelchair, regardless of how disabled the patient actually was.

There wasn't even a TV, which meant Mac was in for at least a few more hours of looking at his feet before anything started to happen. At least Bianca wasn't adverse to the odd conversation.

"BIANCA! What's that Pokémon you're helping?"

Bianca apologized to the trainer - explaining a fake story about Mac's having concussion and therefore not knowing what a Lucario was - before shouting back slightly quieter.

"It's a Lucario, Mac."

Mac was hoping for more details than just the name, but Bianca was too engrossed with her work. Engrossed to the point where she didn't realize a blue haired man wearing a brownish jacket and a fedora walk in. The team rocket agent from the market. Mac did, though, and his stomach sunk. He was vulnerable here. Unable to move, help would take too long and - worst of all - with a friend nearby. If they'd found out he'd betrayed them, Bianca would most likely end up witnessing whatever would happen next. It was a good job Mac wasn't linked to a heart rate monitor that a few others in the room were, because in seconds his heart was racing.

The man walked up to Mac and reached into his coat as Mac lay petrified. Bianca was less than two meters away, but looking in the wrong direction. Was the blue haired man taking the opportunity and ending it all now? What was concealed in the coat? A gun? A syringe? Acid?

"Hi, Marc. I see your friend is still here. Awfully attached, isn't she? Here's a present to see you through."

That said, the man put a plastic bag on Mac's stomach, and walked away without Mac saying a single word. Mac counted twenty seconds for the secret agent to leave the ward entirely, then shouted to Bianca as loud as he dared.

"Bianca! Quickly! Now! Here!"

She spun around with a scowl.

"What is it, idiot? I'm a b-" She stopped and saw the package that had arrived on Mac's bed.

"What's that?"

"I don't know. Don't touch it, though. A man in a fedora left it."

Bianca got the drift and leapt to her feet, before grabbing the blank clipboard on the end of Mac's bed.

"What are you doing?" Mac looked worried.

Bianca spoke quietly, but urgently stood up alongside the present. The ward had really started to get busy, and no one noticed the urgency and possible danger. Bianca didn't want them to, either. If the present was a bomb, she didn't want them to cause alarm and have someone set it off. She didn't want to explain to officer jenny why she thought it was a bomb either.

"If this thing works on pressure, I'm going to make sure it thinks it's still on your stomach. Nice and easy..."

Bianca slid the board under the gift, and then lifted it up, making her way to the window with the intention of throwing it out. Instead, the Lucario's trainer shook her shoulder as she walked past, and the suspicious present slipped off the clipboard and hit the ground with a clatter.

Bianca held her breath, but nothing happened. Whatever it was, it wasn't a bomb.

"You hadn't finished my-"

"Sorry! I know. I was just... This present... and..."

She stuttered as she apologized and picked up the now torn wrapping paper. inside of it appeared to be a decorative cake box with a see through top. She handed it to Mac and went back to the Lucario, shrugging.

Mac ripped off the rest of the wrapping paper and looked through the transparent plastic and into the gift.

Inside was a bar of white chocolate. This wasn't ordinary white chocolate, though, this had a message on the top, written in dark chocolate.

"For your eyes only" And then on the second line,  
"Without us, you don't have a leg to stand on"

Prophetic, perhaps, but not funny. Mac frowned harder as he opened the box and took the chocolate out. There wasn't a message printed on the bottom of the box where Mac was expecting, but rather, on the underside of the chocolate. It was difficult to read thanks to some of the chocolate having run over, but it was understandable.

"To M.  
Brief is brief. Can't act with agent disabled. Be prepared T-12 weeks. Fireworks assured. JMJ"

* * *

I had a friend at school, she was called Emma Briggs, she did that art thing with an arm cast once. It was really detailed, and if you looked at it from the right angle, it looked exactly like the guy had just had his arm cut away and you could see the fracture underneath and everything. Epic...

OH! BTW! I've added a tonne of much much much much much much better stuff to my deviantart (I even made the front page). See it at themoderator . deviantart . com (remove spaces)!


	12. Chapter 12

Latios growled and dived at Latias, as she mimicked and did the same, ears drawn back and rear feathers twitching. Both dragons collided and tried to bite at each other, both unsuccessfully.

"AHHH! Give up already!"  
"No! I'm going to win!"

Latias lunged again, this time aiming at her mates wing. This attempt was more successful, and she managed to get a bite hold around the appendage. Latios growled back.

"No! Not fair!"

The two Eons weren't actually fighting, it was more of a play-fight, but the bites were still strong enough to puncture human skin with ease. Luckily, Latios was made of tougher stuff, and though Latias got a grip, it didn't hurt. Too much.

Latios had an advantage now, though, and he bit back at her now-exposed wing. She let go of his and reeled back, but Latios stayed clamped to her. She freed herself by swinging her head round in a circle and smashing it into his neck with a snarl. Both sprang apart, it was Latias turn yet again to try and attack Latios.

She couldn't remember exactly how the game had started. Part of her seemed to recall her starting it in order to send Latios a few signals, but then another bit of her seemed to recall doing it just because she wanted to play. Latios seemed content to just do the latter for now.

Latias was all set to try and bite one of the two flat panel-like extrusions that Latios had instead of her flippers, but she stopped when she heard the sound of two bowls being hit together. Lorenzo was stood looking up at them, bowls in hand. How long he'd been there, neither were sure, but now he was, that could only mean one thing.

"BREAKFAST!"

Lorenzo found himself suddenly incredibly popular with the dragons, and he dropped the bowls to the ground. The dragons chased them, each flying to their appropriate bowl. Lorenzo reached back inside the house and took what looked like a cardboard cereal box out from the windowsill next to the door. There was a square hole in the side of the box, from which Lorenzo poured a fair dosage of pokeblocks into Latios' bowl. He looked all set to eat them, but was left disappointed when Latias butted in and started eating from his bowl. Latios growled at her, and if it was any other Latias he'd have probably stolen it back off her, but Lorenzo clicked his tongue and pointed at Latias' empty bowl, which he was in the process of filling.

A few seconds later and both Latis were resting on the snow covered ground, undersides cold but too busy chewing away at breakfast. Lorenzo stood back up and enjoyed the moment, then walked up to Latias, who was thoroughly engrossed with Latios' bowl. Or, more accurately, eating the food in it.

No one was allowed to touch Latias when she was eating. No one except Latios, and Lorenzo, the two key male figures in her life. And Latios wasn't too fond of Lorenzo doing so. Nevertheless, that was exactly what he proceeded to do, and he knelt down next to her, stroking the feathers on her neck, looking for the spot where Absol had bitten her. Latias didn't normally have a problem, but Lorenzo wanted to double check that it hadn't got infected or anything.

Latias took the stroking as a sign of affection, and gave him a happy coo. She refrained from paddling her flippers, though. That treatment was reserved for Lati only.

Lorenzo hummed to himself when he found the bite. Latios had done a good job of cleaning her and there wasn't any blood on the feathers, but on her skin there were three small red lines where three of Absol's teeth had got hold and torn at her. If it was on a human, Lorenzo would have been concerned, but since it was Latias he didn't see a need to be. He'd been slightly worried that the combination of worms and her heat could have made her immune system weaker and susceptible to blood poisoning, but that didn't seem to be the case.

He patted her on the head and left the two of them to eat their meal.

* * *

"The-ro-bro-mean. Therobromine."  
"What about it?"

Bianca had finished the Lucario's cast, and he was staring at it intently for whatever reason, while the trainer just stood and awed. Bianca was oblivious, too busy listening to Mac.

"Therobromine is a poison that exists in chocolate. It doesn't affect humans, but it's deadly poisonous to dogs. I was thinking about it because that blue Pokemon you just drew on has a snout like a dog. Anyway, It acts as a neurotoxin and disables the spinal cord, impairing motor function."

"Did they insert a dictionary in your brain as well as fixing your leg?"  
"No, I'm serious. Why have team rocket sent me a bar of chocolate?"  
"Because they like chocolate?"  
"No. Didn't you say something about Latios and chocolate?"  
"He gets sick when he has white chocolate. Last time... Team Roc... OHHHHH!"

Mac rolled his eyes. "She finally gets it."

"So, you're saying that when Latios or Latias has this therobrodine - or whatever - it jams up his nerves and stops him from flying."

"Bingo"

There was a silence, then Mac tipped the chocolate bar and note into the bin by the side of his bed, where it landed with a clang.

"No point in eating that when they could have poisoned it... Say, Bianca, what's that Pokémon you were just painting on?"

Mac glanced at the Lucario and Bianca explained.

"It's a Lucario, the evolution of Riolu. Can't you ju-"

"Evolved?"

"Yeah, you know. Evolved."

"I don't know. Explain please?"

"Oh, errr... Well, when a Pokemon learns a certain amount of attacks, or does a certain number of battles, or is exposed to a special type of stone, they can evolve, I mean, turn into, another Pokemon. So if a Riolu has enough respect for it's trainer, it can level up into it's evolved form, which is Lucario."

"Okay... I guess. What's Latias' evolved form?"

"She doesn't have one. Can't you just check the Pokedex?"

Mac nodded enthusiastically once he remembered, and pointed to a pile of clothes a nurse had left on a visitors chair.

"Oh yeah I could! Pass it to me! It's in one of those pockets!"

Bianca leaned to the chair and started rummaging through the pockets on the pile of clothes. She stopped when she felt something smooth and flat, about three inches long and one across. She looked at it just to be sure, then at Mac, just a few degrees away from firing laser beams from her eyes. She had to keep her voice down, but that only added to how angry she sounded.

"Mac, what the hell is one of Latias' feathers doing in your pocket?"

* * *

Latios had almost finished his food, but Latias had already finished hers, and she was dancing around him, trying to converse and get him to hurry up at the same time.

"Ohh! When Mac's back we could do rough play!"

'Rough play' was what Lorenzo called it when either of the two Latis mock-fought a human.

"I don't think he'll be able to. They'll have him in one of those chairs with wheels."

"Awww... What if he's not?"

"He will be."  
"I think he'll be fine. They were only logs, right?"

Latios had finally finished, and he bit away at the air a few more times, catching any remaining bits of breakfast that had stuck to this mouth or teeth, before answering Latias, who had dove into the bowl the moment he'd lifted his snout.

"He's not fluffy like us. Or flexible. I don't think it'll look good."

There was a pause. Latias realised she was loosing the argument and instead defaulted back to fussing around Latios. She flew around to him and licked around his mouth, trying to get at any remaining food, but he wasn't cooperating and kept his mouth shut. Latias tried to sway him with the sweetest coo she could muster.

"Latios! Teeeeeeath! Teeth!"

Latios kept his mouth shut and Latias responded by yapping in his face.

"Teeth!"

* * *

Lorenzo arrived on the film studio set with half an hour to spare, looking up into the scaffolding rafters for a particular person. Said person had been very loudly boasting in the canteen, and seeing the dragons eating in the snow had given him an idea. He found the man he was looking for after a few seconds, wrapping duct tape around a set of cables.

"Daniel? Could you come down a minute? I have a favour to ask."

Daniel turned around and nodded, ripping the tape and finishing the task. A lever on the harness he was wearing descended him from the roof on an auto-belay system. He landed with practised precision, a perfect proximity away from Lorenzo.

"What's up, boss?"

Technically, Lorenzo was the lighting technician's peer, but all the staff treated him like he was in charge out of respect.

"I heard you've got two Machoke that are pretty talented"

Daniel swelled with pride, realising he wasn't in trouble for having a light in the wrong place or anything.

"Yep, trained them myself. Obedient, but really strong."

"How strong?"

"They can lift one of those power boats, no problem. I'd say that they could both lift about three tonnes between them. Three and a half, tops. They're getting better all the time though! Why, did you see them at the tournament last weekend?"

Lorenzo shook his head.

"No, but I heard about it. Listen, would you be okay if I were to borrow them? I've got a bit of a landscaping project going on, and, well, there are these big rocks that need moving. My back's not up to much these days, so I wa-"

Daniel interrupted him, smiling. The old man just wanted help with his gardening. And he'd asked HIS Pokémon for help! That would SO be something to tell the guys at lunch. Especially if Amanda was there...

"Oh, sure, yeah, they'd love to! When?"

"I know it's soon, but would this weekend be okay?"

"No problem. I'll give you their Pokeballs Friday and you can bring them back Monday. Just feed them any old food twice a day."

"You're a star, Dan. Do they get on with other Pokémon?"

"They're boisterous, you can imagine, and if it's a fighting type they'll probably try and battle it. You think they'll have a problem?"

"I've got two adorable little psychic types, should they be okay?"

"Yeah, they don't have a problem with psychics. They'll enjoy the company."

"Excellent, Dan. You're an absolute star. I've got to get briefed now, but keep in touch!"

Daniel was already being hoisted into the air with his harness, but he managed to shout to Lorenzo one last time before the scaffolding hid him from view.

"No Worries!"

* * *

Katie peeked around the corner of the living room door, to see Absol stood in the centre, front paws down and apparently taunting her pups. They were responding, running round her and trying to bite at her tail, while Absol seemed to be trying to stop them. She stopped when she turned around and saw the human head peeking round the door. Katie.

Absol bounded up to her, puppies in tow, leaping at the last second so she was stood on her rear paws, with her front resting against Katie's blouse, nearly knocking her over.

The pups copied, barking miniature barks at Katie, trying to copy their mothers vocalisations with varying degrees of success. They weren't talented enough to rest their front paws on Katie, though, so they settled with the other playful pose they'd seen, paws out, rear in the air, scythe backwards and tail swishing slightly.

Katie looked at them in awe. It was hard to believe that this Absol was the same one from last night. It seemed that she'd come to terms with the loss and gotten over it with retrospective ease. She could've - Katie noted - taken it a lot worse. Instead, after about an hour of howling outside and half an hour crying to the other pups inside, she'd taken it upon herself to 'bury' the dead pup in the accumulating snow. After that, she'd paced back inside, laid down and fallen asleep in the living room with the rest of her remaining pups.

Absol, it seemed, still had her pack's attitude to sleep, in that she only ever seemed to sleep for a maximum of four hours at a time. Hence why Katie was still somewhat exhausted, but Absol was almost rabid with activity.

"Today, I'm going to show them all the snow and everything you can do with it! It snowed last night! Look! Katie! LOOK!"

Absol darted to the window too quick for her pups to follow, stared out of it in wonder at the frozen pier for all of two seconds, then darted back, turning two circles in the centre of the room for show before bounding back to Katie, who laughed.

"Absol, you're one mad thing. Hungry?"

Absol nodded and jumped at Katie again in agreement, careful to make sure her claws were in. She'd managed to teach the pups some basic barks too, and while they still made sounds that equated to utter gibberish, they could understand a few of her own key vocalisations. So the pups went into overdrive when she barked that the human had food.

Katie opened the door wider and walked to the kitchen as seven Absol piled out after her.

* * *

Mac held his palms up in defence, as Bianca stared menacingly down at him. He didn't see what the big deal was about the feathers.

"Those? They were on the ground near the nest. I'd picked them up to examine later, because...well, they look cool."

"You can't just 'take' her feathers, Mac. Pokémon battle over the right to them, they're practically a currency."

"But they were on the floor, so."

"No, Mac, that's not how it works. They're her feathers until she gives them to someone or something that's earnt them. I can't imagine Latios will be too pleased about you having his mates feathers in your pockets. Keep on annoying him like this and you're in for some serious rough play when you get better..."

"'Rough' Play?"

"Yeah. Come on, you don't honestly think that a giant blue dragon is completely peaceful? He likes showing off to Latias and he's still a bit boisterous. So sometimes he'll play really physical games with another male just to set the record straight."

"Fantastic."

"Meh, he enjoys it. It's like a mix of wrestling and karate. He doesn't use attacks, just raw power."

"Well... Lucky for me I'll be in a wheelchair"

"Oh, Yeah". A grin spread across her lips and Mac caught it.

"Why are you smiling like that? what are you thinking now?"

In truth, Bianca had just imaged how funny it would be to tie Latias, Latios and Mac's wheelchair together. The Latis were smart, but it'd take them a while to figure out they were tied together. And then they'd probably take Mac for a spin. Not that she wanted to reveal that to him.

"I just remembered the winter before last when they were complaining about the snow, so I camped outside with them. We made a fire and everything. And I got to sleep under Latios' other wing because we didn't have a tent.

"So you had a fire? Just out of interest, how are they for fire?"

"What?"

"Well, do they ignore it, or fly away from it? Animals aren't supposed to like it, they're supposed to run away."

"Why do you want to know anyway?"

"Just curious."

"Okay... Well, they actually like it. If we light a bonfire in the garden they'll lie down and stare at it peacefully. Not if the flames are big though. One time a building caught fire and they fled. Only because no one was inside, though."

"Fair enough."

Bianca was distracted as a nurse wheeled in a Jolteon on a gurney with its front left paw in a cast. The nurse frantically pointed at the yellow Pokémon, who's accident seemed to have sedated it. Bianca got the message, picked up her current pen and left Mac to start drawing again.

* * *

"That's a wrap for now. Take a break, people, we'll check this over!"

A bell rang in the studio and Lorenzo sighed, stepping off the white stage and onto a series of uncovered floorboards, while a few technicians walked on, muttering about not being allowed to use their Pokémon. Lorenzo was sick of their complaining, and it was needless to not let them anyway, so he went ahead and toddled up to the scary Charlotte, who was stood with a clipboard, looking at the set. There wasn't ever anything actually ON the board, Lorenzo had learnt. It was more of a fashion accessory.

"Charlotte?"

"Yes, Lorenzo?"

"We could probably save a lot more time and money if we let the technicians bring their Pokemon to help with their jo-"

"No."

"But why?"

"This ceiling cost a million pokedollars and has a thousand volts running through it. One wrong flap of the wing and someone's beloved Pidgey could become toast"

Lorenzo winced at the unnecessary analogy and looked hurt. Charlotte altered her face to look more apologetic and stressed out.

"Sorry if that was disturbing, but it's been a tough day. Something was stopping us from transmitting the shipping forecast and you know how important that is."

"It's okay. So you're happy for people to go up there and work with that kind of thing, but not Pokémon?"

"Exactly."

Lorenzo raised an eyebrow and 'hmph'ed. She seemed to care more about her Pokémon than her workforce. Then again, this wasn't the time for such discussions.

"Did the forecast get out okay?"

"Sort of. We had some kind of side-band interference, but anyone with a maritime radio will have got it. It's a good job, too, there's more snow forecast for tonight. How did you get here, anyway? The canals were iced over because SOMEBODY didn't deploy the ice-breakers." She gave a man with a red armband a sideways glance, but he wasn't looking.

"Carefully, that's how."

"Oh! I've just had an idea! It's on topic, now picture this,"

Lorenzo sighed internationally as he was subject to one of the station manager's vivid recollections of her ideas.

"Okay, so. We have a shot of the frozen over canals for a few seconds, a few pans and whatnot. Then, you start a voice-over, something like 'We all put up with the cold, but how did The Eon Duo cope'?"

Lorenzo put his hand up to stop her, and she did.

"One step ahead of you. We're airing that one in our Wednesday slot."

"Oh."

Charlotte was responsible for the station and what it broadcasted, but not each individual program, so it was completely typical that she didn't have a clue what was going on.

* * *

"How are we going to get to Mac?"

"I don't know. You're the one who sneaks around places."

"Yeah! I'm sneaky!"

The sentence would have been more convincing if Latias hadn't shouted it at the top of her voice. They were high-up, though, so none of the few people below heard. Those that were there had ice skates on, a few actually going somewhere, but the majority were just skating because they could. Latias looked at one woman who was doing a high-speed twirl, her scarf making a pretty pattern.

"I should have a pair of icing shoes."

Neither dragon knew what the Ice Skates were actually called, so Latias had termed them 'icing shoes'.

"You don't have feet. And anyway, you're more sled shaped."

"Oi" Latias reached over and bit Latios on the ear, and he flew to the side out of her range, spying the front of the Pokemon Center-cum-hospital. He frowned when he saw the revolving door. Latias also cast a puzzled look.

"Not one of these..."

Both Latis switched to psychic communication as they got closer to the ground. The door continued to revolve, and the dragons stared at it, oblivious to the closed automatic doors either side.

"Perhaps it knows were here and it'll wait for us?"

The door continued to spin round, oblivious to Latias' musings. Eventually, Latios decided to make the courageous decision.

"I'm going for it. Stay here."

He flew right next to the door, switching to hovering vertical so he'd fit in, and counting the length of time that a space was exposed, head minutely bobbing. A revolution later, Latios tucked his wings as far behind him as possible and dove into the rotating compartment.

Instantly, Latios was confused. The door had started to push him around and he'd allowed it, but now he was pushed into the area where he was completely enclosed on all sides, and it made him panic. Latias picked up on his aura and panicked too.

"Latios! Are you okay!"

"Er... I don't know... I'm getting closer to the inside. I think it's okay."  
"It doesn't look it."  
"DOESN'T IT!?"

The expression was short-lived, as the door continued to turn and Latios ended up facing the lobby. But he was still panicked, and missed the opportunity to escape. Before he could think, he ended up going round and back outside, enclosed on all sides again.

"Latias! It's sending me outside again! I didn't get to the other side!"  
"What can I do!?"  
"I... I don't know. DON'T GO IN THOUGH!"  
"But... I DON'T KNOW!"

As Latias sniffed around the edge of the door, Latios was pushed around until he now faced the outside, making Latias verbally shriek.

"This way! Here!"

Latios rotated himself to face the right way, but yet again he missed the opportunity and by the time he was ready, the gap between the door and the edge of the frame was too small.

"I'M TRAPPED! Latias, do something! Hit it or something!"

Latios considered charging some kind of attack, but there wasn't really enough room to do one without hurting himself. Latias, meanwhile, had decided to try and enter the revolving door. She got halfway in before becoming stuck, the door closing on the end of her neck. The safety cut out activated and the door ground to a halt, with Latias half in and half out.

Nurse Joy looked up from her desk as the revolving door cut out and juddered to a stop for seemingly no reason.

"Latios! It's got me too!"

Latios turned to see Latias with her front stuck inbetween the door and the frame. She must have stopped it, too, because he was now trapped in the enclosed bit of the door, and there was no way to get out without breaking something. But since the door had apparently just attacked his mate, Latios didn't have a quarry about breaking anything.

Nurse Joy had just stood up to see what was wrong with the door, when it exploded, shards of glass flying everywhere but falling short of reaching the reception's only occupant. The two panels that made up the door had also bent, such to the point where they no longer fitted in the frame, and fell to the floor with a thunk and a rattle.

Two floors up, Bianca and Mac heard none of that. The first to notice the Eons presence was the Lucario in the bed next to Mac. It had turned it's head and was looking towards the door, the four appendages on the side of it's head slowly starting to rise as Latias' and Latios' powerful aura got closer. The Lucario's trainer noticed first, and even then, he misinterpreted it.

"Rio, Calm down! There's no need to be aggressive!"

Since Mac was bored, he decided to get involved too.

"Err...is he okay?"

The trainer kept staring at Rio, but he answered Mac's question.

"He's fine, probably just a bit restless from having his arm all bandaged up."

Mac started to feel uncomfortable, as the Pokémon was now looking directly at him. Mac tried not to look back, but it was like trying to not look at a shark that was swimming after you. Something about the intensity in his eyes.

"Apples, Mac. We need apples."

Mac turned around, but the voice wasn't said out loud. It took him longer than it should have to realize it was Latias. Mac murmured a response as the trainer tried disrupting Lucario's line of sight to calm him down, even though it wasn't necessary. The Lucario was just curious as to the new auras and scents that had entered the room, but he couldn't see.

"Apples, Latias? Why? Can't you see I'm a tad tied up at the moment?"  
"But I like apples... And the trees don't have them any more"  
"I'm sure you haven't checked all the trees, then"

If she was visible, Mac would have seen the look on her face which said that she knew what she was doing.

"The store still sells them."

"Kinda occupied, here!"

Latios nudged Mac with his snout, getting his scent and analysing what had happened and how he was feeling.

"Why are you here now, then? Can't you stand up?" Latios asked hopefully. He'd expected Mac to be hurt, but not to the point where his feet had apparently been replaced with two white blocks.

"No, I can't, my legs are broken. They're keeping me here until someone finds a wheelchair."

"Oh... So you can't play with us?" Latias complained, but was interrupted by the arrival of Bianca.

"Doing okay, Mac?"  
"Bored now. Oh, and-"

"HI BIANCA!" Latias broadcast psychicly to the two humans. To her credit, Bianca didn't even jump.

"Hi, Latias. Are you okay?" Bianca decided from now on to always ask Latias if she was okay when she was in heat. That way she'd know if anything interesting had developed. Or was likely to.

"I want apples but the trees don't have any..."  
"Does it have to be apples?"  
"I want FRUIT! Not berries! And the berries are dying too because of the cold."  
"So you've come here to complain about winter?"  
"Yes. No. Wait... Yes. I am. You need to get some apples from the market."  
"NEED to?"  
"I'm going to starve if you don't."

Mac raised an eyebrow and Bianca shook her head at him.

"She's NOT going to starve just because of a lack of apples. There's plenty of fish and other Pokémon."

Latios probably realised his mate was loosing the argument, because Mac could feel something rubbing against the cast on his left foot, even though he couldn't see it. He heard Latios thinking to him and Latias though.

"Oh wow, it's like claws for your snout!"

Neither Bianca nor Mac could see what they were doing, but Latias copied Latios and rubbed the side of her snout against the edge of Mac's casts. It scratched an itch they had often but couldn't reach.

"Mac Simmons?". A new voice shouted into the ward, which sent Latias and Latios up instinctively against the ceiling, avoiding the voice from touching them and ruining the invisibility.

"Me?" Mac shouted back at her, glad to see what the nurse had brought her.

She wheeled the extra large wheelchair next to Mac's bed, before pressing a button on the wall to raise it to a sitting position.

"We've found you a chair, so all that's left is to put you in it and then you're free to go. You've been given your advanced treatment rehab slip?"

Mac reached over to the table at the bedside, pointing at the green form. The nurse nodded and looked at Bianca.

"Are you his sister?"

Bianca looked at Mac, then back at the nurse.

"Uhhhh...no. But I am a friend?"

"Close enough, just help me lift him into the chair."

"I can walk, you know?" Mac objected as Joy unhooked his casts from the roof and lowered them gently to the foot of the bed. She shook her head.

"You might think you can, but since you can't move your toes, you can't balance, and especially with those on, you'll just fall over."

While Bianca and the nurse helped Mac get out of the bed and into the wheelchair, Latias heard a high-pitched noise in the bed next to him and turned. The Lucario was looking right at her, and talking in ultrasonic. The humans couldn't hear it, but both Eons could, loud and clear.

"I'm Lucario. Latias? Latios?"

Latios stayed close to the ceiling, but flew between the Lucario and Latias.

"Yes, it's us. Hello?"

"I can't see you, but I can see your aura"

"We're both invisible."

"So you are real?"

"Yep. Have you hurt yourself?"

The Lucario looked down at his cast and then back up.

"I don't know... My arm hurt, but then it didn't, and they told me I did hurt it, and now I've got this thing on and I can't feel my arm."

To reiterate, the Lucario started chewing on the cast, but his trainer shouted at him to stop Lucario barked back an apology and looked back up at where it could see Latias' aura.

"Sorry, Ri... So, You're a Latias?"

"The only one!"

"Oh. Is he your mate?"

Latios realized where the conversation was going and butted in, flying half the distance between the Lucario and his mate.

"Yes, she's mine, okay?"

"I wasn't thinking about challenging you! You just don't smell like mates yet... I was confused"

"Well... Ok then. But I'm watching you."

As the males exchanged menacing squints, Latias compared the two.

Really, the Lucario couldn't put a patch on Latios. True, he was a really nice shade of blue, but other than that he didn't have much going. He couldn't fly, he wasn't particularly smart and by the smell of it, was quite domesticated. All of which were terrible qualities if Latias were going to mate with him, or have him look after her pups.


	13. Chapter 13

Eventually, Mac was able to leave the hospital, being pushed through the layer of snow by Bianca as the two dragons fussed about him in his chair invisibly.

"Mac, mac! You've got wheels now! You're like a car!" That particular jem came courtesy of Latias, who had never seen a car outside of a TV programme. Latios was a bit more sympathetic.

"Do you still hurt? You don't smell like you hurt?"

Mac turned around in his seat and looked at Bianca, answering Latios' question.

"Since you asked Bianca, yeah, I'm fine. The casts itch a bit, but I'm fine. Thanks for asking, by the way, it's really kind of-"

"If you don't shut up I'm wheeling you into the canal."

"Ooooooh tetchy"

Bianca wheeled his chair closer to the edge of the canal, and he stopped. According to the nurse, the chair was supposed to float, though she wasn't 100% sure that it would float 'upright'.

"Bianca! Where are we going?" Latias asked her. He psychic voice sounded annoyed and Bianca knew immediately it was because of the snow. It'd stopped snowing, but it was still very, very cold and there was snow on the ground - a thing Latias hated because it meant she couldn't perch anywhere.

Bianca answered to Mac.

"Well, Mac, we're going to the TV station because that's where you were meant to be working. Plus it's nice and warm inside, and I'm freezing."

Bianca was wearing more than Mac, though, and he just huffed. Whilst she was wearing a nice warm coat, Mac had only got what he wore when he had the accident, with the trousers swapped for some thin jogging bottoms as the doctor had cut his other ones up in order to get to his mangled legs.

"We don't need to go in a boat, either, so that's good too."

Latias chimed up in both humans' heads.

"Me and Latios are going to look at Absol's pups!"

Bianca had forgotten about that, and she spoke quickly to try and ask them back.

"How did that go, by the way? What was wrong?"

But the dragons had already flown away, restless to speed up and warm up.

"It's really sad about her pup! Do you think she'll be okay?" Latias quipped.

Latios just grunted. "She'll be fine. That kind of thing probably happened all the time in her old pack."

Latias suddenly jolted.

"That couldn't happen to our eggs!?"

Latios brought her closer under his wing and calmed her down before she actually did start panicking.

"No, Absol's pup died because her mate wasn't getting any food. But I'm here, so our eggs will be fine"

"Really?"

"Yes really"

"Awwwww" Latias flew even closer to Latios' side, and nuzzled the side of his neck. She backed off as they spiralled down into Katie's garden. Latios flew up to the back door and tried the handle with his mouth. It opened and he pulled, swinging the door open outwards. He warned Latias as he did.

"Me first, she might be angry. It's her territory after all."

"Okay" Latias nodded. Absol's scent was ever-present in Katie's garden, and it served as a warning to all the types that she was super effective against. Including dragon types.

Latios flew into the kitchen, with a surprised Katie looking back at him.

"Er, Latios?"

In her hands she had a large, 10kg bag of Pokémon food, and balancing on top of that, seven steel bowls. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was feeding the pups.

"It's OK, Latias!" Latios shouted as he flew up to Katie and took the bowls off her, saving her from having to balance them.

"Better?"

"Give them back! Latios! I'm feeding Absol!"

"I know!"

Latias smelt Absol and her pups through the kitchen door and opened it with her mouth. Absol and her pups looked all set to charge through the door until they looked up and saw Latias. The pups remembered her as the red thing that left raw meat lying around and yapped happily, whereas Absol just sat upright, embarrassed at the way she was clawing and trying to open the door from the bottom. Latios flew past them all with the bowls in his mouth, then placed them down in the hallway. Absol ran to them, and whined when she realised they were empty.

"You could have put some food in them?"

Latios shoved Absol's face away from the bowls and set about separating them and arranging them on the floor. He needed to take his claws out to separate them, and used the middle claw on his right paw to fit in between the stacked lips of the bowl. Then he could lift the paw and the stack would come away. The bowl was then placed on the carpet next to the last bowl he'd put out. Latias and Absol watched, chatting over the pups, who were now super excited about the red thing, and the promise of food, and the noisy metal thingies that the blue thing was making.

"I hate eating from a bowl." Latias complained, not that she was the one eating.  
"It's not that bad. Anyway, I see Latios didn't bring us any meat, so unless you've got a better idea?"  
"No. Your pups don't have much fur on them, still. Aren't they a bit cold?"  
"No, Katie's turned on the heaters, so they're snuggling up to them if they're cold."  
"So you don't have to be laid down all the time?"  
"No, Great isn't it?"

Latias wasn't sure if it was great or not. She certainly wouldn't want her pups choosing a metal heater over her own feathers.

"I guess. Oh, Katie!"

Katie walked in and had the bag of Pokémon food in both hands, this time with the top cut open. She was clearly shocked at Latios helping and laying out all the bowls.

"Oh, Thanks Latios. 'Scuse me..."

Absol watched with a keen eye as Katie carefully trod around (Not over, as a bite to her ankle reminded her) Absol's pups, and tipped a generous helping of Pokemon food into the first bowl. Instantly, the pups started clamouring about it, and Absol had to bite them by the neck and move them away as Katie laughed the spectacle. By the time she'd filled the third bowl, though, the pups had figured out the pattern and lined up next to a bowl. One female took this a step further and climbed into hers, only to be moved by Absol before Katie poured the food in. Finally, Katie poured out the biggest pile into the last bowl, which Absol trotted over to and started eating out of.

Katie looked at the two dragons, who were low to the floor, watching the Absol family eat.

"I wasn't expecting you two, and I don't have any more bowls. Are you okay to do withou-"  
"Apples!?"

Katie blinked as Latias shouted outloud and psychicly.

"You want an apple?"  
"Yeah! The trees don't have them any more!"

"Well... Okay then. Wait here, I'll fetch two for you..."

While Latias didn't have a sense of barging into people's houses and demanding food being slightly rude, Latios did, and he coo'd a thanks as she disappeared into the kitchen.

"How can you eat that?" Latios asked Absol after a pause. She was too busy with her head buried in the bowl to respond though. She was at-ease, though, eating laid down will her rear paws at her sides and her front paws surrounding the bowl.

"Or ignore me. Do both, whatever." Latios uttered as Katie re entered the room with two red apples.

"Are these o-okay, I guess so." She changed her sentence as Latias flew across to her and stole the apple out of her hand. Latios decided for whatever reason to try picking up his apple with his claws, and though it took two attempts, he managed to take the fruit from Katie's palm, it ending up grasped between his two paws just in front of the red triangle on his chest. Katie smiled at the sight and tried conversing as Latias sat her apple down on the floor and started taking large bites out of it.

"Is this bizarre craving for apples your fault, Latios? Hmmmm? Does someone need a lot of sugar all of a sudden?"

Latios cocked his head in confusion at both the inference, and his apple. His neck was too long and not flexible enough to reach it. Barely. He'd picked up the apple in an attempt to show off to Latias, but that'd backfired and he was refusing to admit it.

"You don't get me, do you?"

Latios shook his head.

"Uh. Is Latias going to be having little Latias and Latios any time soon?"

Latios shook his head and coo'd back, though since there wasn't a translation Katie still had no clue what he'd said.

"No, Why? What's that got to do with apples?"

"What's taking you guys!? I want to see what a baby Latias looks like!"

"Probably like the real one, just smarter." Latios muttered under his breath, though luckily only Absol heard. She spluttered on her food when she did.

Katie looked concerned at her, then looked back at Latios, who was still trying to get the apple to his mouth. It wasn't reaching.

"Let's face it, Latios, that isn't happening. Here."

She reached her hand forward to get the apple off him, but he flew backwards and clutched it tighter. Katie took a step forward and tried again.

"I'm not going to take it off you, but perhaps you should try Latias' method."

"Hmmm... Okay then..."

Latios flew closer, and Katie took the apple from him, watching her hand on his sharp claws. She then immediately gave it back, practically shoving the fruit into his mouth.

Latias had finished hers at this point, and Katie sighed as Latias tried taking Latios' apple too, first trying sweet words, then outright trying to take the apple from his mouth. Katie saw this and put on her stern voice.

"Latias, you can't take EVERYTHING from your brother. Let him eat."

Latias backed away, but she looked downcast and Latios gave in almost immediately, dropping the apple into her paws, which were longer in proportion to her neck than Latios', meaning she was perfectly capable of eating the apple, which only had one bite taken out of it.

"Latios! Stop giving into her all the time. Are you trying to get into her 'Good Books'? You need to eat too."

"Good Books? But Latias is hungrier?"

"Are you still hungry?"

"Erm... Yes."

"Right then, I'm getting you ONE more apple, but you're not going to give it to Latias."

Latias made a whining noise but Katie just glared at her and went back into the kitchen.

* * *

"A WHEELCHAIR!?" Lorenzo exclaimed, facepalming at the same time. He was kind-of hoping that Mac would be on crutches or something, but with two plaster blocks on his feet and strapped into a wheelchair, Lorenzo couldn't see him climbing a ladder.

Station manager Charlotte was stood behind and looking slightly more rational, for once.

"How are you with music, Mac?"

"I can play the piano. And the synthesiser."

She hummed and Bianca - who was stood behind and holding the wheelchair's handles -, smirked. Mac would be hopeless at whatever job they gave him.

"I guess your chair would fit through the music booth door, and you don't need to climb anything. We haven't had a proper music guy in ages, either. Just that Smeargle, and he's not exactly the music kind. Fancy giving it a shot?"

Mac shrugged and Lorenzo nodded.

"I'll give it a try!"

"Right, with me then. You might as well start now, I'll show you around. Lorenzo, do you have something to do?"

"Er... no, well, err, yes. No."

"Good, wheel Mac's chair around and point out anything he might be interested in. Young Lady, you can go now."

Bianca stutted, annoyed by the abrupt dropping of her 'pushing Mac around' role.

"But, I wanted-"

Lorenzo interrupted.

"Bianca, listen to Charlotte, we're working now"

Bianca uttered a "Fine", and turned around to leave.

* * *

Katie returned with no apple in her hands, but she did have her hand in a cup shape and it did smell of food.

"I'm out of apples now. Do you eat flying type food?"

Her question was answered when Latios flew forward and started eating the processed pellets straight from her hand. His teeth nipped her palm once or twice, but they didn't cut her.

While he ate, Katie absent mindedly stroked the feathers on his neck and stared at Absol. She was almost finished, but a few of the pups didn't seem to be grasping the whole 'eating from a bowl' ordeal, and were trying all kinds of stupid methods to eat. One, for instance, had eaten the food on one side of the bowl, but couldn't reach the other because it's neck was too small. So it had resorted to bashing the bowl with it's paw and whining, instead of just walking to the other end of the bowl, or doing what another pup was doing, and climbing into the bowl.

Latios finished eating and he flew back to Latias, cooing a thanks at the same time. Katie just shook her hand and wiped it on her leg. Latios hadn't drooled on her, but his breath had still made her hand disturbingly moist.

Absol finished too, and looked up at her pups. Latias grinned when she saw Absol sigh at the sight. Absol trotted over to the closest pup, picked it up in her mouth, and moved it to the opposite end of the bowl, where it started eating. One by one, she sorted each of the pup's issues, then turned to Latias.

"Thanks for helping."

"I haven't helped!"

"I know. Katie calls what I just did there 'sarcasm'."  
"Well done!"

Absol cocked her head and tried to figure out if THAT was sarcastic or not, and Latias giggled at her. When absol looked confused, she looked very confused, and the sight was quite amusing. Latias didn't get to enjoy it for long, as there was a clanging noise behind Absol and she turned around.

Pup's one to three were fine. Pup four was nowhere to be seen, and it's bowl was upside down. Pup's five and six appeared to be fine.

Absol howled at the top of her voice to the missing pup, and it did a comparatively tiny howl back, from inside the upturned bowl. Katie was wincing from Absol's initial howl, but Latias had flown to the upturned bowl and was nudging it with her snout.

"He's inside! He must have flipped it on him."

Absol tried nudging the bowl over, but all that did was move the bowl across the floor and panic the pup inside. Absol stopped, but the bowl started to move around of it's own accord, being pushed by the panicked pup inside.

Latias stifled a giggle as the bowl went from one end of the carpet to the other, producing a rattling noise as the upturned food inside was dragged with it. Absol didn't find it funny, and barked at Latios.

"Move the bowl!"

In a psychic flip, the bowl appeared to right itself, revealing a small pile of food and a bewildered pup. It looked directly up and it's mother and howled.

"No! Not now, Latios and Latias have come to say hi!"

The pup howled again and the others turned and joined in, until the room became a cacophony of tinny yowls. Absol put the scythe on her head back and gave in.

"Fine. But no more milk after that."

The pups couldn't understand her properly just yet, but they understood what it meant when Absol side stepped to the side of the hallway, sighed, and laid down with her underside exposed. A rush of puppies ran across the room and started suckling from her. Katie just made an 'awwww' noise.

To top the moment off, there was a knock on the door, followed immediately by someone walking through. Bianca stepped over the threshold and Latias flew towards her, licking the side of her face by way of a 'hello'.

Bianca moved her away with a scratch of the ears and continued to stare at the micro-Absols. Then she saw the line of abandoned bowls and the pile of food that the upturned bowl had caused.

"Well, I had got them a toy, but judging by the looks of things I think they're finding their food entertaining enough."

Latias' ears pricked up at the mention of a toy, and she tried to force her snout into Bianca's hand to snatch it, but she kept her grip.

"No! Latias, this is for Absol and her pups!"

"But I want to give it her!"

"Latias!"

"Okay..."

Latias drifted backwards out of Bianca's way and Katie smiled.

"I think they're done eating. If you two want to eat anything they haven't, feel free to have it!" Katie turned around and walked into the kitchen with Bianca, oblivious to the flurry of feathers as both dragons dove down to the free food. Yeah, it was processed Pokemon food, but it still had meaty aspects. Latios heard Bianca chuckle as they entered the kitchen.

"Two of Alto Mare's greatest legends, holding unspeakable amounts of power, and you've asked them to clean your hallway."

"Like you wouldn't."

"You're right. One time they helped us paint the stairs. Well. Tried helping at least..."

Katie peeked her head around the kitchen door and glanced at Latios licking the food up out of the metal bowls.

"Bianca, how come when they're eating food from my hand they bite it, and then they lick at food on the floor?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"You should teach them the other way round."

"Have you TRIED training them? It took three decades to stop them from bringing dead things in the house."

"Uuurgh! Too much info! I'm glad Absol doesn't do that! What's the toy you've got her?"

"Oh, just this. Latias ruined her's really quickly, but Absol doesn't have such sharp teeth. I got three, because of the pups."

Outside of the Pokemons' view, Bianca produced three fake - but furry - Raticate, with the tail substituted for a few bright pink feathers. In the side was a slot it could be wound up with, and the seller claimed it had the same scent as the typical prey.

"Latias ruined hers? I'd have thought Latias would be smart enough to know that that isn't real."

"Latias? Smart? You mean the thing that flies into windows and gets scared of spiders?"

"Well, I've never flown into a window, but I am scared of spiders..."

* * *

"Uh... Hello?"

Mac wheeled his way into the small-ish room, where a small gray-ish Pokemon with long hair was sat on a high chair. It was - bizarrely - wearing a set of headphones, and was pressing buttons on a modern looking console. It's head was bobbing slightly to the music it was sequencing.

Charlotte walked into the room behind him, still talking. To Mac, it didn't seem like she gave the sentences enough of a pause between them, and the result was him only understanding 80% of what she said.

"...area we'll get that sorted at some point do you know how to use this?"

Mac paused while he figured out the question, then answered, all the time keeping his eye on the Pokemon. It didn't appear to have noticed him. He recognised the machine it was using, though. It was a mixture of a computer, set of musical keyboards, typing keyboards, faders and sequencing pads. The Pokemon seemed to have mastered using them.

"Uh. Yeah. I've not seen that Pokemon before, though..."

Lorenzo was stood behind Mac, but Mac could still feel him wincing. Luckily, Charlotte seemed to interpret this as Mac not meeting this particular Smeargle before. She walked forward and gently rested a hand on it's shoulder. It responded by removing the headphones and turning around to face Mac. Charlotte introduced him.

"Smee, this is Mac. Mac, this is Smee, the musical Smeargle. Do you think you two could work together?"

'Smee' stared at Mac, trying to make up it's mind. Mac, in turn, stared back. The moment lasted about five awkward seconds, then 'Smee' smiled and did a happy little noise.

"Good, then it's settled. You two can spend the day getting to know each other and the equipment. Tomorrow I'll give you a task list, then you'll be working proper I'll get Lorenzo to pick you up for lunch and any breaks any questions?"

"Err... No."

"Good. Off you go then, Lorenzo with me I've got an interesting set of thi-"  
The door closed behind Lorenzo and Charlotte and the room fell silent bar the humming of the computer. Mac stayed still.

"So...can you talk?"

The Smeargle shook it's head.

"How are we supposed to work when you don't even speak my language?"

The Smeargle shrugged it's shoulders, then pulled on it's headphone cord until it unplugged. Speakers built into the walls of the room started to play a loop quietly. The loop was a single guitar riff, but it sounded decent to Mac.

"Did you make this?"

A nod.

"Well... Okay then... Let's... Get to know each other... Where do you sleep? Who's your owner?"

The Smeargle pointed to a recess in the wall with a Poke Ball set in it. It had '08' printed above the button.

"You sleep in that ball? So, the studio owns you?"

The Smeargle nodded again, looking enthusiastic as ever. To Mac it sounded horribly depressing.

"So, do you ever leave this room?"

The Smeargle nodded again and mimed an eating motion.

"They let you out to eat?"

He nodded. Mac had a feeling that working with this Pokemon was going to get very bland, very quickly.

* * *

"Do you want to give Absol a brush? Her fur's getting a bit matted."  
"Oh, sure, w-wait... Why?"  
"Oh.. er... because... Gahh, I'll be honest. I want to give Latias a brush too. She's just so soft and... Squee!" Katie made the adorable noise loud enough for Latias to hear, but both Eons were busy pestering Absol. Latias in particular.

"What's it like having them drink milk?"

Absol responded in an irritated tone, clearly just wanting to rest, but she answered nonetheless.

"Tiring. Really tiring. There's six things practically leeching the life out of you"

"Oh... Still, they look cute!"

"And? They still have sharp teeth."

Back in the kitchen, Bianca sighed and nodded.

"Alright, you can brush Latias. She does need one, I guess. Make sure Latios knows you are first though."

"Oh yeah, they're mates now. What's that like?"  
Bianca shrugged. "He's a bit more focused now, but she's not. Neither of them show off their kills to me any more, which is nice too. I think that since they both think I'm their sister, they care more about their mate than they do me." Bianca's sentence dropped at the end and she clearly felt slightly upset.  
"Awwwww..."

Latias had been listening to that bit, and Bianca's sentiment made her think. Was she concentrating too much on Latios? Bianca was basically her sister, after all. She still needed hugs too.

Latias flew up and into the kitchen, and then barrelled straight into Bianca. Bianca ended up giggling against the counter as Latias licked her cheek and cheered.

"Hello Latias, good to see you too!" Bianca reached up and patted Latias on her head, mood lifted. Latias just had that affect on people.


	14. Chapter 14

Pups fed and watered as much as she could bare, Absol stood up and trotted into the kitchen while Latias and Latios followed. Absol mew'd when she arrived, and Katie looked down.

"You want to go outside?"

Absol went to the doorway and yipped a 'Yes', and Katie did the honors. The moment there was enough room, Absol and her 6 pups gained a new level of speed and clumsy running, as they galloped outside and ploughed headfirst into the thin layer of snow that covered the grass in the garden. The first thing Absol did - which completely conflicted with Latias' and Latios' opinion of her - was to lie down and roll over and over. Both Eons and both humans watched from the kitchen window, giggling at Absol's expense. One moment she was fiercely guarding her pups, the next, she was jumping around in the snow and happily mewing with them.

"Aren't you two going to play in the snow too?" Katie asked, looking up from the window at the underside of the dragon's snouts. Bianca answered for them.

"Er... Them? Snow? Ha, no! They can barely stand ice cream. They definitely don't like snow."

"Oh... Well..." Katie mumbled, but then started laughing as every one of Absol's pups copied her, rolling over and over in the snow. Clumps started to form on their fur, but they carried on anyway.

"They're going to be all miserable when that melts and makes their fur wet..." Katie noted. She watched for another few minutes before going to the door.

"Imma' throw some snowballs at them, Banksie. Want to join in?"  
"What kind of a question is that? Duh, yes!"

Bianca zipped her coat back up and Katie went to get her shoes from the hallway. She was beaten to it by Latias, who shrieked all the way to the boots, grabbed them in her mouth and flew all the way back, dropping them at Katies feet.

"Ignore the dragon drool. It's harmless," Bianca muttered, which set Latias off again.

"I DIDN'T DROOL IN THEM!"  
"Yeah, whatever Latias! Are you sure you don't want to join in?"

Bianca opened the door, and Latias drifted away from it slightly, as if the cold was physically pushing her.

"No! Too cold!"  
Bianca raised an eyebrow at Latios, but he shook his head and floated to Latias. He was staying, that much was clear.

"Suit yourself!" Bianca and Katie practically jumped out of the door and it slammed behind them.

Latios watched from the window as Bianca and Katie both scooped up some snow, formed it into a ball, and threw it at each other, both with the intention of surprising the other. Bianca's hit Katie in the thigh, and Katie's hit Bianca in the arm, where it splattered into a large amount of cold pieces that hit her in the face. She shrieked and giggled, which made Absol turn away from her pups. She saw Katie pointing at laughing at Bianca and decided to have some fun herself.

She leant on her front legs in preperation, then lept two bounds and jumped at Katie, front paws aimed at her midsection.

Katie didn't even see her friend until it was too late, as her fur blended in well with the white surroundings. Absol's paws connected and sent Katie falling to the ground. She landed on her back with a thud, laughing.

Absol loved the sound of Katie laughing, because it almost always meant she'd start playing with her, so she went down on her front paws with her rear in the air, like if Bianca was throwing a ball for her.

The pups saw the human lying on the ground with their owner looking at it, and ran over too, yipping.

* * *

Mac felt a hand on his shoulder and turned around. He took off his headphones when he saw Lorenzo smiling at him.

"Mac, Break time. Take five, bring your friend with you."

Mac turned around and tapped the Smeagle's shoulder, who took off his headphones and looked at Lorenzo without prompt. Lorenzo made an 'eating' gesture.

"Smee, eat-ums!"

Smee nodded but stayed where he was. Mac was hungry though, and Smee didn't seem dangerous, so he hitched his arms under the surprised Pokemon's shoulders, and sat him on his lap. The action surprised Lorenzo too; he was expecting the Smeargle to walk alongside them, but since Mac had opted to have him pushed along Lorenzo took the handles on Mac's wheelchair and wheeled him out of the door.

"You having fun, then?"

Mac 'um'ed and Smee turned his head to look at the pair.

"It's relatively fun, I guess. Better than being shot at, exploded or having to jump out of a plane."

Smee raised an eyebrow and Lorenzo chuckled slightly.

"Well, good for you. Are you two getting along?"

This time, Mac didn't hesitate and Smee even made a positive grunting noise, which was something considering he was normally silent.

"Oh, yeah. Like peas in a pod. Where are we going?"

"Here..." Lorenzo interrupted, leading Mac into a room which he opened with the footboard of Mac's chair.

The canteen was a mixture of fancy and standard. A few low tables, a few more waist high tables with tall chairs, most of them surrounded by people in overalls or tracksuits, all of them with "CREW" printed on the back. Lorenzo wheeled Mac to the breakfast buffet. Mac was delighted to find sausages, bacon, hash browns, mushrooms and everything else required for an English breakfast. He looked up at Lorenzo and gestured the ample foods.

"Yep, that'll do nicely."  
"I thought so. Which do you actually want?"  
"How much are they?"  
"I'm paying, have whatever."  
"Oh... Well then...in THAT case, I'll have a full English."  
"And Smee?"

Smee looked up at the mention of his name, and Mac looked at him to pass the question on. Smee pointed to a fried egg that was sizzling behind the glass on a heated plate.

"Is that it?"

Smee nodded his head.

"Excellent. I'll get that, you grab a table."  
"Oh, okay then... Thanks!"

Mac leant his arms over the edge of his wheelchair and started to wheel himself around. The chair had to be big enough for both his casts, and it was quite bulky. This wasn't on Mac's mind, though, as he noticed that the only table which wasn't occupied was a tall one, which Mac's head didn't even clear.

"Oi! Lorenzo's lad! Want a seat?"

Mac was looking at the person who had shouted. He was sat at a table with a few other people, but it had seats. The man didn't look particularly friendly either, but he clearly was close to Lorenzo to be able to know who Mac was.

Mac wheeled himself over to the end of the table of the man who had shouted. There were three other people sat down around the rectangular table, and each of them cast alternate glances at Mac, Smee, the wheelchair and the plaster casts.

"Cool casts! Did Lorenzo's daughter do them?"

Mac nodded, feeling increasingly self-conscious. The men introduced themselves.

"Sorry... Yeah, I'm Mike, this is Craig, Dan and Steveo. We're the guys you would have been working with if your you hadn't fuc- I mean, broken you legs."

Mac smiled when he realised the guys were just genuinely having a chat, though now he had to make up an excuse for having broken legs, since he could hardly say a tree fell on them.

"Ah. Climbing accident."  
"Climbing?"  
"Yeah, you know... One minute I was climbing, the next...I wasn't. A few seconds later I broke my legs..."

The men all nodded.

"Just as good you're not in our line of work for a while, then."

As the men chuckled in agreement and Mac sat there awkwardly. Lorenzo turned up, balancing three plates: one with just an egg on, one with what appeared to be a sausage sandwich, and the last, which appeared to have the entire breakfast buffet display on it.

Mac grinned when the latter plate got put down in front of him.

* * *

Back in Katie's kitchen, Latias was sniffing around the surfaces and complaining at Latios, who was still looking out of the window at the humans. He wanted to join in, but Latias really didn't want to go outside.

"My teeth hurt! Latios!"  
"You're not going to chew on me like last time... Find something else."

Latias knew full well that Latios wasn't going to just 'let' her bite on his wing, but it was worth asking, she reasoned. Bianca's grandmother had told her why her teeth sometimes hurt.

"It's because you get new ones every ten years. It'll go away..."

After that, she was given a nice bit of hardwood to bite on. The block of wood worked well enough for that particular occasion, but she'd left it somewhere when the new teeth had stopped hurting, and now there was nothing to alleviate the pain.

Latios gave up looking out of the window and turned around to see Latias trying to get her jaw around the edge of the marble counter top.

"No, don't do that, that's a stupid way of doing things! Find something else...like..."

Latios looked around the kitchen, stopping when his eyes rested around the handle of a spoon which was made of a solid looking rubbery material. He flew to it and delicately lifted it from the container, metal spoon bit clacking against his teeth, rubber handle facing Latias.

"This!"

Latias swooped to take it off him, then maneuvered the handle so it was across her mouth and that she was biting with the teeth that hurt. Her teeth punctured the rubber like it was so much as paper maché, but stopped at the solid aluminium core. She gave a coo of content when the pressure nullified the pain in her gums.

"Ahh! That's much better!"

Satisfied with having something to chew on, Latias flew back to the window and looked outside. Absol looked like she was having fun, and she was running in circles around the garden, either chasing the pups or with the pups chasing her, it was hard to tell. Bianca and Katie were both throwing snowballs at each other.

"How does that not hurt them!? They've not even got fur or anything!"

Secretly, it looked like fun, and he wanted to join in, but it also looked very cold, and while he could get used to it, it wouldn't be nice doing so. It wasn't even the cold, so much as the snow. The cold didn't bother him, but the snow... That stuff crept under your feathers and chilled you to your core.

From outside, Latios heard Absol bark. It had appeared that her pups had caught up with her, and were now playing with her tail, curiously batting it around and yelping at it.

"I'm going outside." Latios decided. He flew to the door and opened it with his mouth, then flew out, cooing to Bianca.

"Hi Bianca!"

Bianca and Katie both smiled as he flew right up to Bianca, who quickly tickled him behind the ears. Her hands were cold, and if Latios ever felt his own paws that cold then he would be worried, but humans were better with that kind of thing.

"Do you want to play catch?"

Bianca laughed at how excited the single sentence had made Latios, who started fussing around her, then flying further away so he could actually catch whatever it was she was going to throw.

Bianca leaned down to the ground and scooped up some snow, compressing it into a ball at the same time. She then picked it up, and threw it directly at Latios.

Latios moved his head to intercept the ball, and bit down to try and catch it, but the ball disintegrated immediately, and though he felt like he'd caught it, his mouth was empty.

"Where'd it go? Bianca?"

Bianca was smirking and Katie laughing, but Latios continued to search for the ball, sniffing the ground for the scent Bianca would have left on the ball.

"Latios!"

Latios turned towards Katie, who had somehow managed to get the ball without him noticing.

"How did you do that!?"

Katie was a bit more friendly in throwing the ball and threw it under-arm at Latios. To him, it felt like it took an age to get there. Fed up of waiting, he flew towards the ball, determined to catch it this time.

It disintegrated in his mouth again, and he let out a cry of disappointment.

* * *

Inside the house, Latias was growling at the sink. She'd turned around away from the window to look for something to eat, and in the process the sink had somehow managed to spray water over her rear. It hadn't hurt, but it was still a surprise and a dishonor.

"No! Don't!"

She squealed at and spread her wings out to try and intimidate it. The tap, being inanimate, didn't respond and continued to insult Latias by spewing more water out.

"I'm warning you!"

Latias continued to growl, but it wouldn't stop and the sink was beginning to fill, so Latias attempted to stop it and teach it a lesson at the same time. Unfortunately, her method composed of taking the faucet in her mouth and shaking it until the entire unit ripped out of the sink.

The faucet tore off where it was attached, and the previous downward dribble that the tap was producing turned into an upward fountain, right into Latias' snout. She wheeled back and clattered into the other side of the kitchen, scattering various miscellaneous kitchen utensils to the floor.

Latias was angry and barring her teeth, but there wasn't much to be done. The tap was destroyed, the floor was covered in the stuff that was previously waiting on the side, Latias' teeth still hurt and now her snout and tail feathers were all damp.

She shook herself to get rid of the water droplets, but the severed connection for the tap continued to spray water half way to the ceiling before gravity brought it back down and splashing into the overflowing sink.

It looked pretty, and though it smelled slightly metallic, Latias realised she was thirsty, and flew back over, hovering her mouth over the fountain and letting the water jet into her mouth. It was like the fountain thingy at home, but more convenient because the force of the water meant less effort to swallow.

Suitably refreshed, Latias flew back and looked around the kitchen for something to eat. She was - after all - still hungry...

* * *

"Awww, look at his face..."

Bianca half sighed, half giggled as Latios searched in vain for the snowball which had disintegrated.

"I'll fetch him a proper ball!" Katie offered, and ran back to the back door of the house.

Latias heard someone at the handle of the back door and instinctively turned invisible. She was going to turn visible when the door opened and she saw Katie, but stopped at the last minute when her aura flipped from playful to alarmed.

"What?! WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO THE KITCHEN!?"

Outside, Latios and Bianca both heard her shout and ran to the door. Bianca saw the wreckage and gasped, but Latios stayed silent, already working out what must have happened. It was especially easy when factoring in the smell of an alarmed Latias.

Bianca couldn't smell that smell, but she could still figure out who was responsible for the destroyed sink and scattered utensils.

"LATIAS, GET HERE NOW! VISIBLE!"

The kitchen remained still, bar the overflowing sink. Katie spoke much quieter to Bianca.

"I'll just turn off the sink. There should be a valve or something underneath."  
"Good idea."

As Katie dealt with stopping the fountain, Bianca called to Latias again.

"LATIAS, THE LONGER YOU HIDE, THE ANGRIER I GET!"

Lying on the floor, one foot away but invisible, Latias was feeling very sorry for herself. She knew what she'd done was wrong, but Bianca wouldn't see it that way and showing herself wasn't exactly going to make Bianca happier.

The 'hide indefinitely' plan failed when Bianca decided to take a step forwards, and her leg managed to kick the side of Latias' neck. Bianca looked down at the invisible animal and Latias knew she was rumbled.

"Latias, visible. I'm not talking to you while I can't see you"

Latias composed her face to look as apologetic as possible, and turned visible, flipping her feathers the opposite way round so the reflective side was no longer visible.

"Bianca, I'm sorry!"

Bianca just stared at her for a bit and Latias felt even worse.

"Latias, how did you make all this mess?"

Latias started to explain, but she was just explaining in Lati and Bianca stopped her.

"I was watching you playing in the snow and then I turned around and the si-"

"Psychic and English please, Latias"

Latias stared again, still explaining from the floor.

"I was watching you playing with the snow, then I turned around and the sink attacked me and splashed my fins, so I told it to stop, but it didn't, so I wanted to make it stop, but then it threw water at my snout and I panicked and... I'm sorry, Bianca..."

Bianca sighed and went down on her haunches until her face was only a few centimeters from Latias'. Latias took this as a good sign and looked up.

"It's not me you need to be sorry to, this isn't my kitchen."

Latias made a disappointed noise and Bianca softened a bit more.

"I know you're in season and everything, but you need to think a bit more: it's a sink. It's not going to attack you or try to embarrass you or anything."

"I was just surprised and..."  
"Are you tired?"  
"Yeah..."  
"Okay then. You fly back to the garden with Latios, I'll sort something out here... Don't you have something to say to Katie first?"

Latias paused for a second, the slowly lifted off the ground and hovered just behind Katie, who was reaching into the cupboard under the sink. The gush of water suddenly stopped and Katie let out a sarcastic "Yay". She turned around and suddenly came face-to-face with a very apologetic Latias. The dragon managed to get the first word in.

"I'm sorry for attacking your water Katie..."

Katie was angry, because it meant she'd have to spend the afternoon she'd planned on giving Absol and her pups a walk, buying a new faucet part and finding some way or someone to fit it. But Latias looked genuinely sorry, so Katie settled for just looking angry, but not actually yelling.

"It's okay. These things happen, just... Don't do it again."  
"Sorry!"  
"It's okay..."  
"Really sorry!"  
"You can stop apologising now"  
"Sorry... SORRY!"

Latias' facial features jarred for a second as she figured out what to do next, then she suddenly turned around and fled the room by the back door. Latios followed immediately afterward, leaving Katie and Bianca alone, standing in the centimeter layer of water that had collected on the kitchen floor.

"I haven't taught her to apologise properly yet..." was all Bianca could think of saying.


End file.
